An international seminar on The Camel in Rajasthan: From Heirloom to Unique Selling Point will be held in Jaipur on 7-8 April 2008.

International and Indian camel experts and Rajasthan camel breeders will discuss ways to promote camel husbandry in Rajasthan.

The seminar will address two themes: developing the dairy potential of camels, and a strategy for making Rajasthan camel-friendly.

The seminar will take place at the Hotel Jai Mahal, Ajmer Road, Jaipur. It is organized by LIFE Network member Lokhit Pashu-Palak Sansthan (LPPS) with support from the Ford Foundation.

More information

LPPS head office: tel. 02934-285086, mobile 9414818564, email lpps@sify.com

Jaisalmer office: tel. 02992-250652, 254452, email camelherds@yahoo.co.in

A group of Raika herders from Rajasthan, India, will be leaving on 26th August for Europe to speak up about their rights at a series of international gatherings dealing with issues crucial to the continuation of their traditional livelihoods. The Raika are the nomadic camel and sheep breeders of Rajasthan who are famous for having created some of the country’s best livestock breeds, but whose future is on the brink, as their traditional pastures are dwindling away. The government has been given preference to irrigation agriculture, and is now in the process of allotting so-called wastelands – that actually represent customary grazing areas – for bio-diesel cultivation.

From 1-7 September, the delegation will attend the First International Conference on Animal Genetic Resources in Interlaken (Switzerland), together with more than 200 government delegates from around the world. This conference has been convened by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations to discuss strategies for countering the dramatic rate of extinction of farm animal breeds that is regarded as a threat to future food security. The reason for this trend, among others, is that industrialized livestock farming systems are expanding while the farmers and herders that keep locally adapted breeds are being squeezed out.

The goal of the Raika and other representatives of herding cultures is to convince the governments that they should be given an official role in efforts to conserve animal genetic resources. They emphasize that many breeds will only survive, if they themselves are given grazing rights and are lobbying for reference to Livestock Keepers’ Rights in the official documents of the meeting. Livestock Keepers Rights are a bundle of rights or principles that would ensure that traditional livestock keepers can continue to make a living from their animals and thereby sustain the diverse breeds that compose biodiversity and are considered essential for long-term human food security. While African countries have strongly supported inclusion of Livestock Keepers Rights, other countries have not taken up the issue, and the term remains “bracketed” (subject to further discussion).

From 8-12 September, the Raika will attend an International Gathering of Nomads and Pastoralists held near Segovia in Spain. They will also participate in a meeting convened in Madrid by the governments that have signed the United Nations Convention on Combating Desertification (UNCCD) to emphasize that pastoralism (or herding) makes an important contribution to conserving biodiversity in drylands. While scientists have accumulated evidence for the positive interlinkage between grazing and biodiversity, the UNCCD has not yet acknowledged this connection.

The group composed of Mangilal Raika, Ramu Ram Raika and Srimati Daili Devi Raika will be accompanied by Tola Ram Bhil, a Bhopa (traditional musician) who is specialized in performing the story of how their ancestor, Harmel Ram Raika, brought the first female camels to Rajasthan. The tour is facilitated by the NGO Lokhit Pashu-Palak Sansthan, whose director, Hanwant Singh Rathore will act as translator for the group.

On the way to Switzerland, the group will spend time in Germany at the invitation of the League for Pastoral Peoples and Endogenous Livestock Development, an organization that is supporting pastoralists and other marginalized livestock keepers throughout the world through training and advocacy for favourable policy frameworks. In Germany, the Raika will interact with local sheep and cattle herders and learn from them about the use of herding animals in nature conservation. In many countries in Europe, grazing with sheep and other species is used to conserve certain cultural landscapes as well as types of plants, and therefore supported by the government.

Contacts

Hanwant Singh Rathore, Lokhit Pashu-Palak Sansthan (India), www.lpps.org, mobile +94-148-18564; phone +94-2934-285086

Ilse Koehler-Rollefson, League for Pastoral Peoples (Germany), www.pastoralpeoples.org, +49-6154-53642, ilse@pastoralpeoples.org

This text in Word format

About 50 stakeholders in livestock keeping, breeding and management from nine African countries, Europe and India met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on 24-25 May 2007, to discuss the future of Africa’s domestic livestock and poultry breeds and diversity.

The participants urged that Livestock Keepers’ Rights be adopted into the agenda of the intergovernmental Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. They also pointed to the need to investigate the implications of patenting and other forms of intellectual property rights on the sustainable management of animal genetic resources.

The meeting was organized by the Ethiopian Society of Animal Production, , the Ethiopian Institute of Biodiversity Conservation, the International Endogenous Livestock Development Network, the League for Pastoral Peoples and Endogenous Livestock Development, the LIFE Network, and Pastoralist Forum Ethiopia.

Summary report 56 kb

Issue 5 (April 2007) of the People and Livestock newsletter focuses on endogenous livestock development. The newsletter is now published by the Endogenous Livestock Development Network, www.eldev.net.

Read online or download 158 kb, 9 pages

Pastoralists and other livestock keepers should have the right to participate in formulating national policies. That was one of the conclusions of a workshop on Pastoralists, Livestock Keepers Rights and Animal Genetic Resources, on 24 to 26 February 2007.

Around 100 pastoralists from all over India attended the workshop in Sadri, Rajasthan, along with delegations from Mongolia, Iran and the Philippines.

The workshop also demanded official recognition for pastoralists as custodians of animal genetic resources. Their mobile way of life and their traditional rights to use forest lands and other natural resources must be protected, said participants.

An international meeting followed immediately after the national workshop. Participants from Bangladesh, China, Germany, India, Iran, Mongolia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Thailand, the UK and Vietnam, along with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, clarified the concept of Livestock Keepers’ Rights. This a bundle of rights and recommendations for strengthening the role of livestock keepers in animal genetic resource management.

Issues discussed included:

• The loss of grazing land and traditional knowledge, leading to the erosion of animal genetic resources
• The dangers of intensive, industrial food production systems and their narrowing of animal genetic diversity
• The threat to the right of livestock keepers to breed their own animals
• The lack of support for Livestock Keepers’ Rights from governments worldwide
• The need to build the capacity of livestock keepers

Report from the two meetings: 326 kb

The LIFE Network will host an international workshop on “Livestock Keepers and the Management of Animal Genetic Resources: Roles, Rights, and Responsibilities” in Sadri, Rajasthan, India, on 26-28 February 2007.

Registration and accommodation are free, but participants must cover their own expenses. The organizers may be able to provide assistance in certain cases.

Further information: 47 kb

On this year’s Human Rights’ Day, 10th December, representatives of herding communities from all over India rallied in Delhi to draw attention to their plight and discuss strategies for reviving their customary grazing rights. For hundreds of years these mobile livestock keepers have held together rural life by providing draught animals, milk, meat, wool, manure, and general eco-system services.

But in the last several decades these diverse and colourful people that include the Raika and Gujjar of Rajasthan, the Maldhari of Gujarat, the Gaddi in Himachal, Bakkarwal in Kashmir, Van Gujjar in Uttaranchal, Changpa in Ladakh, Golla in Orissa, Kuruba in Karnataka, Toda and Konar in Tamil Nadu, and many more, have felt the squeeze of “development” and of generally unsympathetic government policies. The establishment of wildlife sanctuaries and national parks, joint-forest management schemes, allotment of common land for commercial plantation or bio-diesel cultivation, expansion of irrigation agriculture are all developments that have constricted their customary grazing areas.

The situation is much the same throughout India, says Perumal Vivekanandan of the NGO SEVA in Madurai. “The present situation of humiliation and harassment is forcing many herders to abandon their traditional life style. This is also leading to the disappearance of hardy indigenous livestock breeds, such as camels, Kankrej cattle, Gir cattle, Nari cattle, Malaimadu cattle, Neeli Ravi buffalo, Toda buffalo, Kachakatti black sheep, Pulikkulam cattle and many others that can cope with difficult environmental conditions. It means a loss of an important part of India’s biodiversity and cultural heritage, as well as an environmentally sustainable way of life”.

There is now danger that the grazing rights that the herders once enjoyed will be abolished unceremoniously, according to Hanwant Singh Rathore, director of the NGO Lokhit Pashu-Palak Sansthan working with pastoralists in Rajasthan. “The Raika Sangarsh Samiti has requested clarification from the Supreme Court about their grazing rights in the Kumbalgarh Sanctuary. Now the Chief Wildlife Warden of Rajasthan has recommended that no grazing be allowed. If the Supreme Court supports this, it means that existing rights have just been done away with.”

Dr. Minoti Chakravarty-Kaul, a retired economics professor from Lady Shri Ram College in Delhi, who has undertaken long-term research with Gaddi pastoralists, points out that transhumance is a sustainable system of forage utilization and livestock production that saves the Government tremendous costs. Three dams constructed in the foothills of the Siwaliks have forced the Gaddis to change their migration patterns with deleterious effects for themselves and the environment. Ignoring the needs and the experience-based wisdom of pastoralists will lead to a tremendous loss of social capital and destroy a system of self-governed livelihoods which cost the governments next to nothing.

Ironically, demand for the products of pastoralists is on an unprecedented high: practically all the goat meat in India is produced by such herding groups; there is a huge need for manure for fruit cultivation, organic agriculture and to sustain crop yields in general, while camel milk is making headlines as treatment for diabetes.

Dr. Ilse Köhler-Rollefson of the League for Pastoral Peoples and Endogenous Livestock Development, an international NGO based in Germany and with long-term involvement in India, believes that pastoralism is necessary to sustain the environment. “In Germany, when people stopped grazing livestock in the forests, this led to a change in vegetation, totally altering the landscape. The government now actually pays herders to graze their animals in the forest and to maintain the pasture landscape that people see as their bio-cultural heritage.”

In India, two important pieces of policy and legislation in draft form support the cause of pastoralists. The draft National Policy for Farmers that has been circulated by the Ministry of Agriculture in April 2006 has emphasized in its Section 2.4.8.4 the need for securing pastoralists’ forest grazing rights including those areas which are declared as Joint Forest Management, Wildlife Sanctuaries and National Parks. The Recognition of Forest Rights Bill 2005 tabled in Parliament by a Joint Parliamentary Committee has also underscored in Chapter II Section 3-d the forest grazing rights of nomadic and settled pastoralist communities.

But there is strong resistance against these policies becoming law, especially among environmentalists. The herders hope that their meeting in Delhi will help to push them a little bit closer to reality. Until and unless such policies are implemented, pastoralism in India is likely to become a piece of the past.

About the meeting

The herders meeting took place from 8-10 December in Delhi. On 10th December morning, a function was held in the India International Centre. The event was organized by members of the LIFE-Network, which is a group of NGOs and representatives of pastoralists communities that promote community based conservation and development of animal breeds and species.

The LIFE Network was initiated when NGOs and pastoralists gathered at Sadri, Rajasthan during a workshop on livestock keepers rights in the year 2000 organized by Lokhit Pashu-Palak Sansthan (LPPS) and the League for Pastoral Peoples. At present the LIFE-Network in India is coordinated by the NGO SEVA that is based at Madurai.

Contact for more information:

Perumal Vivekanandan, SEVA, 45, T.P.M. Nagar, Virattipathu, Madurai 625 010, Tamil Nadu, India. Tel. 0452-238 00 82, 238 09 43 (O), 0452-238 36 19 ®, fax (pp) 0452-230 04 25, e-mail numvali@sancharnet.in, website www.seva-ngo.org

Hanwant Singh Rathore, Lokhit Pashu-Palak Sansthan (LPPS), PO Box 1, Sadri 306702, District Pali, Rajasthan. Tel. 02934-285086, mobile 9414818564, e-mail lpps@sify.com, website www.lpps.org

Prof Dr Minoti Chakravarty-Kaul. Apt C-59,
Uttaranchal CGHS, 5 I.P. Extension, Patpargunj, Delhi 110092. Tel. 2272-0928 (fax on tel-demand), mobile 9873420089, email minoti.chakravartykaul@gmail.com

Dr Ilse Köhler-Rollefson, League for Pastoral Peoples and Endogenous Livestock Development, Germany. Mobile in India 9829477535, e-mail ilse@pastoralpeoples.org, website www.pastoralpeoples.org

Diversity in our livestock is essential to confront future threats to food supplies, but livestock breeds are becoming extinct at the rate of 5% per year.

Local livestock keepers and pastoralists hold the key to keeping this diversity alive - but only if their rights are recognized.

On World Food Day, 16 October 2006, the League for Pastoral Peoples and Endogenous Livestock Development organized a workshop where small-scale livestock keepers and pastoralists from Africa, Asia and Latin America demanded the safeguarding of Livestock Keepers’ Rights to the genes of their breeds.

Timetable and presentations (from the LPP website)

More information:

• English 226 kb
• Français 119 kb
• Deutsch 241 kb

On 16-18 October 2006, the LIFE Initiative and the League for Pastoral Peoples will host an international workshop on “The future of animal genetic resources: Under corporate control or in the hands of farmers and pastoralists?“

The workshop, to be held in Bonn, Germany, will prepare for FAO’s First International Technical Conference on Animal Genetic Resources, to be held in Interlaken in September 2007.

The Bonn workshop will enable civil society organizations dealing with environment and development to focus on issues of biotechnology, biopiracy, animal welfare and livestock biodiversity. It aims to:

• Draw attention to the Interlaken Conference and its importance
• Raise awareness on the related topics
• Identify potential for action
• Devise cooperation opportunities.

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doc

Read online or download. 76 kb, 6 pages

In September 2007, the town of Interlaken, Switzerland, will host a major international conference on animal genetic resources.

The First International Technical Conference on Animal Genetic Resources comes at a time when the livestock sector is increasingly coming under the control of private firms. Livestock keepers are in danger of losing their rights to their own animals: their traditional rights to grazing lands, and the right to breed, sell and even to keep animals.

The LIFE Network is planning a series of activities to highlight the role of livestock keepers in creating and maintaining livestock biodiversity, and to press for their rights.

Click here for more information. 64 kb.

Conference on livestock biodiversity, indigenous knowledge and and intellectual property rights, organized by the League for Pastoral Peoples in Bellagio, Italy, 27 March - 2 April 2006

Purpose

To discuss the following issues:

• How to endorse and acknowledge the role of livestock keepers in conserving diversity and ensure that their contribution to the sustainable use of animal genetic resources is rewarded and supported.
• What are the legal options for protecting animal breeding related indigenous knowledge in the context of existing legal frameworks and emerging opportunities and new models. What are the respective advantages and disadvantages?

Still a viable livelihood option?

Workshop report compiled by Chakrawarti Singh and Ilse Koehler-Rollefson

Lokhit Pashu-Palak Sansthan, 2005

Summary and recommendations from a workshop with more than 50 sheep pastoralists from Rajasthan. Participants urged the the government to implement recommendations on grazing and fodder, marketing, services, institutional changes, indigenous knowledge and research.

Download 337 kb, 30 pages