APPENDIX I
OUR RIGHTS UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW
We the Samburu in this Samburu Community Protocol identify the following
principles and rights based on international law:
Principle 1:
The Samburu are creators of breeds and custodians of their animal genetic resources for food and agriculture.
Over the course of history, we the Samburu have managed and bred
livestock, selected and used them, thus shaping them so they are welladapted to our environment and its extremes. Keeping these breeds is a
vital part of our culture and livelihoods. Yet these breeds and our livelihoods are under risk because of a number of interrelated factors including
misguided breeding schemes and climate change. This has endangered
our food security and our way of life. As recognized in the Global Plan
of Action for Animal Genetic Resources and the Interlaken Declaration
on Animal Genetic Resources, livestock keeping communities are thus
the creators and custodians of the breeds that they maintain. We have
therefore earned certain custodianship rights over these breeds, including the right to decide how others use the genetic resources embodied
in our breeds.
The Samburu
Community
Protocol about
the Samburu
Indigenous
Livestock Breeds
and their
Rights to their
Indigenous
Livestock Genetic
Resources and
Role in Global
Biodiversity
Management
Principle 1 is supported by:
Point 9 of the Interlaken Declaration on Animal Genetic Resources recognizes “that the genetic resources of animal species most critical to food
security, sustainable livelihoods and human well-being are the result of both
natural selection, and directed selection by smallholders, farmers, pastoralists and breeders, throughout the world, over generations”.
Point 12 of the Interlaken Declaration on Animal Genetic Resources recognizes “the enormous contribution that the local and indigenous communities and farmers, pastoralists and animal breeders of all regions of the world
have made, and will continue to make for the sustainable use, development
and conservation of animal genetic resources for food and agriculture”.
Part I Point 10 of the Global Plan of Action for Animal Genetic Resources: “all animal genetic resources for food and agriculture are the result of
human intervention: they have been consciously selected and improved by
pastoralists and farmers since the origins of agriculture, and have co-evolved
with economies, cultures, knowledge systems and societies. Unlike most wild
biodiversity, domestic animal resources require continuous active human
management, sensitive to their unique nature”.
Principle 2:
The Samburu and the sustainable use of traditional breeds are dependent on
the conservation of our ecosystem.
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