Photo: Ilse Köhler-Rollefson
l Biocultural community protocols: tools for securing the assets of livestock keepers 115
Samburu and Red Massai sheep.
tices for Red Maasai sheep. Methods
included field visits, community awareness
meetings, informal interviews with individual herders and other stakeholders, and
herder focus groups. The findings illustrated the close interconnectedness of the
Samburu culture with their sheep. But it
also raised the communities’ awareness of
their breed’s potential and scientific interest in their breed (Lekimain, 2009).
In August 2009, a LIFE Africa member
from a prominent Samburu family travelled to the region to document local
institutions and leadership structures
(Lenyasunya and Wanyama, 2009). He
organised community meetings to inform
them about BCPs. He also asked community leaders to identify experienced herders
who would be interested and willing to
participate in drafting a Samburu BCP.
Then, in September 2009, a BCP-drafting support team composed of lawyers
from Natural Justice (NJ), the League of
Pastoral Peoples and Endogenous Live-
stock Development (LPP), the female
Raika leader and the LIFE Africa member
from Samburu travelled to Maralal. They
held two workshops in two locations. Some
40 herders from different villages and
other local stakeholders participated and
discussed community identity and origin,
cultural significance of breeds, relationships between ways of life, traditional
knowledge and associated customary laws,
the conservation of breeds and local biodiversity, and current challenges.
Back in their office, the NJ lawyers then
drafted the BCP text. The draft was subsequently amended through the other
members of the BCP support team and
then translated into the local language.
During a follow-up workshop in 2009,
the two LIFE Africa members went back
to the communities to share the Samburu
language draft with a group of selected
herders. The herders discussed ways
forward. Suggestions included using the
protocol to educate young people, mobilise