Biocultural community protocols for livestock keepers
tion of access to grazing and the lack of emphasis on pastoral practices by the formal
educational system.
• The Raika identify their lack of access to the Kumbalgarh Sanctuary as main challenge
to the continuation of their livelihoods. Besides the loss of grazing rights, they also
identify lack of marketing opportunities as issues that need to be resolved.
• The Lingayat report the problems they suffer from the increasing elephant population,
despite being accustomed to co-exist with wildlife.
• The Pashtoon describe their lack of inclusion into policy-making processes as a major
obstacle to biodiversity conservation.
Intergenerational continuity
The Lingayat Biocultural Protocol records a lack of interest among the younger generation in putting up with the hardships of a life based on animal husbandry, coupled with
frustration about a life as unskilled labourers. It states “We are caught in a no man’s land
of being unable to carry on our traditional livestock-keeping and unwilling to suffer the
indignities of life as unskilled labourers”. Similar sentiments echo through the Raika and
the Samburu protocols.
Solidarity
The process of establishing the protocols is generating awareness among livestock keepers about the similarity of their problems worldwide and leading to a feeling of solidarity,
as expressed in the Samburu protocol: “We express solidarity with all livestock keepers
across the world. We celebrate our diversity as well as acknowledge the similar ways of
life, values, and challenges that we face”.
Gender
The existing community protocols have been developed by men, with women hardly
having any visible inputs. (The one notable exception to this rule is that it was a woman,
Raika leader Dailibai Raika, who presented the Raika protocol first to African indigenous
people and then at the meeting of the working group on Article 8j of the UN Convention
on Biological Diversity in Montreal.) This gender bias is evident from the photographs
documenting the individual processes. The existing biocultural community protocols thus
present the male perspective on the issues. Interestingly, two of the protocols (Pashtoon
and Samburu) point out that it is usually women who are in charge of veterinary treatment
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