Biocultural community protocols for livestock keepers
The Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing
Since the World Summit for Sustainable Development that was held in Johannesburg in 2002,
there has been momentum to establish rules for the implementation of access and benefitsharing. An International Regime on Access and Benefit Sharing was envisioned that would
regulate all access to genetic resources and traditional knowledge and require the sharing of
any benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources and traditional knowledge with
the States or communities that have rights over them. By 2008, the Conference of the Parties
extended the working group’s mandate to negotiate a specific text for the operational side of
the international regime. A draft text has been developed and is currently being revised to be
submitted for adoption to the next meeting of the Conference of the Parties in October 2010. This
legal framework is commonly known as the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing.
• Links between community demands and existing international regimes and frameworks
• A call to various stakeholders for respect of their customary laws, their community.
At a Panafrican Preparatory Meeting of Indigenous and Local Communities held in Nairobi,
in September 2009, the more than 60 participants passed a formal resolution advocating
biocultural community protocols as a way for African governments to recognize community rights under the impending protocol. They concluded that States should be required
to ensure that access to community owned genetic resources and traditional knowledge
would be obtained according to the specifications laid down in biocultural community
protocols. They also recommended that the regime or protocol require States to ensure
that the development, management and control of biocultural community protocols is
community-led and that a financial mechanism for the promotion of them is set up. At a
meeting held in Khaba, Rajasthan, the LIFE Network (a group of NGOs promoting local
livestock breeds) also affirmed biocultural community protocols as the way forward to
secure Livestock Keepers’ Rights in India (Köhler-Rollefson, 2010b).
The Global Plan of Action for Animal Genetic
Resources
The Global Plan of Action for Animal Genetic Resources is a framework for the sustainable use, development and conservation of the world’s livestock genetic resources (FAO,
2007). It is the outcome of a country-driven process of discussion on how best to conserve
farm animal genetic resources and was adopted by 109 countries at the First International
Technical Conference on Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture held in Interlaken, Switzerland, in September 2007. The country delegations also adopted the Interlaken
Declaration on Animal Genetic Resources, by which they confirmed their common and
individual responsibilities for the conservation, sustainable use and development of animal
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