Livestock keepers’ rights is a concept developed by civil society during the “Interlaken process” and is advocated for by a group of non-government organizations, livestock keepers, pastoralist associations and scientists who support community-based conservation of local breeds. This study provides an overview of the rationale, history and content of livestock keepers’ rights and suggests that biocultural or community protocols are a means of invoking the principles of livestock keepers’ rights even in the absence of their legal enshrinement. It is concluded that besides striving for legal codification of livestock keepers’ rights its principles should form the basis of pro-poor and ecological livestock development in general.

Description of how the Raika of Rajasthan created a biocultural protocol