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League for Pastoral Peoples and Endogenous Livestock Development,
Annual Report 2006 5
rights during this meeting. They presented case studies of pastoral com-
munities from India and Uganda. This side-event was attended by some 15
representatives from Bhutan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Mongolia, Russia,
Tanzania and Uganda, as well as FAO, the World Intellectual Property Or-
ganisation (WIPO) and the Africa Group of the Convention on Biological
Diversity (CBD).
Important points emerging from the discussion included:
·
Pastoralists throughout the world face common problems relating
to access to natural resources, in-situ conservation of indigenous
animal breeds, life style and pastoral culture.
·
The issue of pastoralists' rights needs to be discussed specifically
in the CBD. At its Fourth Conference of Parties, CBD had dele-
gated agricultural issues to FAO.
·
While Farmers' Rights are supported by the International Treaty on
Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, the rights of
pastoralists are not mentioned anywhere. This is although they
possess valuable knowledge and breeds. Pastoral communities
are not recognized for their role they play in the society, and their
knowledge and the biodiversity they maintain are being eroded.
Conference of Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity
Curitiba, Brazil, 20­31 March 2006
Susanne Gura and Perumal Vivekanandan participated on behalf of the
LIFE Network. They organized a side-event where they gave presentations
on Livestock Keepers' Rights. Further presentations were given by Maryam
Rahmanian of the Iranian environmental organization CENESTA, and Cha-
chu Ganya from Tanzania. About 50 people attended, including staff of
FAO, the International Livestock Research Institute and Bioversity Interna-
tional, as well as country delegates and representatives of NGOs and in-
digenous peoples. In one of the conference's plenary session on agrobiodi-
versity, P. Vivekanandan presented a statement highlighting the impor-
tance of Livestock Keepers' Rights. He reminded the audience that Brazil's
livestock sector was built on Indian cattle breeds and would probably not
have developed so well if patenting had been applied to cattle.
International conference on livestock services enhancing rural
development
Beijing, China, 16­22 April 2006
This conference was organized by the Department of International Coop-
eration, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and the Chinese Acad-
emy of Engineering. Ilse Köhler-Rollefson presented a paper entitled Sup-
porting livestock keepers through organizational strengthening: Why ser-
vices are not enough and we need a "rights-based approach" to livestock
development. Co-authored with Hanwant Singh from the League's partner
organization Lokhit Pashu-Palak Sansthan, this paper was well received by
the several hundred participants from China and elsewhere. The confer-
ence revealed the huge interest in Canada and other countries to export
germplasm to China. The environmental consequences of setting up inten-
sive dairy units in marginal areas such as Inner Mongolia was also high-
lighted. The dairy units are held partly responsible for dust storms in Bei-
jing.
9th session of the WIPO Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual
Property, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore
Geneva, 24­28 April 2006