• Ilse Koehler-Rollefson, League for Pastoral Peoples and Endogenous Livestock Development. Tools for strengthening the role of small-scale livestock keepers in the implementation of the Global Plan of Action for Animal Genetic Resources
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• Raziq Kakar, SAVES (Pakistan): Results of a participatory livestock breed survey in Baluchistan.
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• Elizabeth Katushabe, PENHA (Uganda): Herders' workshops for community documentation of livestock breeds.
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• Kabir Bavikatte, Natural Justice (South Africa): Biocultural or community protocols of livestock keeping communities: Experiences and implications.
  
• Evelyn Mathias, League for Pastoral Peoples and Endogenous Livestock Development. Developing a code of conduct on Livestock Keepers' Rights
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• P. Vivekanandan, SEVA (India): Processes to strengthen livestock keepers and their rights in India.
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Side-event invitation

LPP's founder and project coordinator Ilse Koehler-Rollefson has started a blog detailing her work with and for pastoralists. The blog is hosted by Rolex Awards (Ilse is a 2002 Laureate). Read it at http://blog.rolexawards.com/author/ilse/

Smallholder farmers and pastoralists fulfil an invaluable yet undervalued role in conserving biodiversity. They act as guardians of locally adapted livestock breeds that can make use of even marginal environments under tough climatic conditions and therefore are a crucial resource for food security and possibly for adapting to climate change. But in addition, by sustaining animals on natural vegetation and as part of local ecosystems, these communities also make a significant contribution to the conservation of wild biodiversity and of cultural landscapes.

The Global Plan of Action for Animal Genetic Resources acknowledges and seeks to support this crucial contribution of smallholder farmers and pastoralists to keeping our planet healthy and diverse. The United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues backs up this strategic approach and calls for it to be strengthened, while the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity also commits its signatories to support in situ conservation by local and indigenous communities.

This publication provides a glimpse into the often intricate knowledge systems that pastoralists and smallholder farmers have developed for the management of their breeds in specific production systems. It also describes the multitude of threats and challenges these often marginalized communities have to cope with and suggests interventions that can sustain valuable human-animal-environment relationships and combine conservation of breeds and their ecosystems with poverty alleviation.

Prepared by Ilse Köhler-Rollefson (LPP) with contributions from Evelyn Mathias (LPP) and Irene Hoffmann (FAO).

Contents

• Background
• Economic and ecological roles of smallholder farmers and pastoralists
• Creators and guardians of breeds
• Conservation
• Why livestock keepers give up their breeds
• Motivation and incentives to keep a breed
• Improving small-scale livestock keepers’ participation in the implementation of the Global Plan of Action for Animal Genetic Resources
• References
  

Citation: FAO. 2009. Livestock keepers – Guardians of biodiversity. Animal Production and Health Paper 167. Rome.

• Download from FAO
• Download from pastoralpeoples.org

This article (in German) in the July 2009 issue of the nature magazine Natur+Kosmos describes the work of LPP's Ilse Koehler-Rollefson and Hanwant Singh Rathore, director of LPP's partner organization in Rajasthan, Lokhit Pashu-Palak Sansthan.

Ilse Köhler-Rollefson, H. S. Rathore and E. Mathias. Tropical Animal Health and Production. 22 Nov 2008.

Abstract

In South Asia, and throughout the developing world, the predominant official approach to livestock development has been improvement of production by means of upgrading local breeds via cross-breeding with exotic animals. This strategy has led to the replacement and dilution of locally adapted breeds with non-native ones. This has resulted in an alarming loss that has been estimated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations to amount to one breed every two weeks. Based on selected case studies this paper argues that development strategies using locally adapted breeds and species are much more likely to benefit livestock keepers whilst also maintaining domestic animal diversity and bearing a smaller ecological footprint. It also analyses the rationale for “Livestock Keepers’ Rights”, a principle that grew out of the struggle of traditional livestock keepers to retain control over their production resources, such as grazing areas and breeding stock, in the face of unfavourable policy environments.

Draft version (93 kb)

Order published version

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has recognized the contribution of smallholders and pastoralists to the development, use and conservation of animal genetic resources.

FAO's Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture presented a 42-page paper detailing the role of livestock keepers in developing and maintaining breeds at an intergovernmental working group on animal genetic resources in Rome on 28-30 January 2009.

The paper highlights the value of these breeds, the genes they contain and the ecosystem services they provide (such as maintaining landscapes, preventing fires and restoring soil fertility). It warns about the dangers to local breeds from the promotion on exotic breeds, the spread of uniform, mass-marketed animal products, and the extension of cropping into marginal grasslands.

The League welcomes FAO's support of these ideas, which have long been promoted by LPP and the LIFE network.

Click here to download the full paper.

The League for Pastoral Peoples and Endogenous Livestock Development (LPP) will be a member of a panel discussion on "the crucial role of genetic resources in ensuring food security in a changing climate" at the United Nations in New York on 13 May 2009.

The discussion is hosted by the Nordic Council of Ministers at the UN headquarters as part of the 17th session of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development. It will be preceded by presentations by the Global Crop Diversity Trust and the Southern Africa Plant Genetic Resources Centre. Other panellists include the Food and Agriculture Organization and the WorldWatch Institute.

LPP founder Ilse Koehler-Rollefson will represent the League.

Visit www.norden.org/CSD17 for details.