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League for Pastoral Peoples and Endogenous Livestock Development,
Annual Report 2006 4
breeding processes and individual genes may restrict the rights of the
communities and individuals to breed, manage and use their own livestock
as they choose. Besides impacting rural livelihoods in a negative way, this
would also pose a threat to the viability and continued development of the
breeds. For example, a broad patent claim recently filed in 160 countries
would, if approved, restrict the rights of breeders to use commonly prac-
tised breeding techniques for pigs.
The meeting participants unanimously recommended the legal recognition
of livestock keepers' inherent rights to continue to use and develop their
own breeding stock and breeding practices. They issued the Bellagio Brief
summarizing the foregoing issues and calling on national governments to
recognize these rights, acknowledge livestock keepers' contribution to na-
tional economies, and adapt their policies and legal frameworks accord-
ingly (see the box on the Bellagio Brief on page 1). Participants regarded
this as an important step in preventing the current intellectual property sys-
tem from being exploited for obtaining control over animal resources and
breeding processes that deliver a vital part of the world's food supply.
The papers presented at the meeting can be downloaded from
www.pastoralpeoples.org/bellagio/
. The Bellagio Brief has been circulated
widely.
The Rockefeller Foundation kindly made the Bellagio conference facilities
available for this meeting, and supported the participants' air travel. Addi-
tional funding came from Misereor and SwedBio.
International workshop on the future of animal genetic resources:
Under corporate control or in the hands of farmers and pastoralists?
Bonn, 16­18 October 2006
Organized by Susanne Gura together with other LPP members and the
LIFE Network, the workshop was held in preparation of the International
Technical Conference on Animal Genetic Resources that will be held in
Interlaken, Switzerland, in September 2007.
While concentration in the livestock breeding industry is fast increasing and
exotic breeds are transferred to the South in large quantities, local small-
holder livestock keepers are losing access to grazing lands. The growth of
large-scale agrofuel plantations may add to these pressures. Workshop
participants ranging from livestock keepers to government representatives
emphasized the importance of livestock keepers' rights to their breeds as
well as to the productive resources (e.g., grazing land, water, animal health
services and credit) needed for their production. Local breed development
should become a priority in poverty alleviation programmes.
The workshop was funded by Bread for the World, Swissaid, the Swiss
Agency for Development and Cooperation, and the Dutch Biodiversity
Fund.
Meetings attended
The League and other LIFE Network members also raised the issue of
Livestock Keepers' Rights in practically all relevant international forums,
often through special side-events. Brief descriptions of the major events
follow.
Working Group on Article 8(J) of the Convention on Biological
Diversity (Traditional Knowledge)
Granada, Spain, 23­27 January 2006
Susanne Gura (LPP), Tom Loquang (Kisup Ateker, Uganda) and Perumal
Vivekanandan (SEVA, India) conducted a side-event on livestock keepers'