Tamil Nadu’s Minister for Animal Husbandry, Thiru Pongalur N. Palanisamy, has launched LPP’s latest book, Biocultural community protocols for livestock keepers.

Biocultural community protocols are a new approach with great potential for empowering pastoralists and other traditional livestock-keeping communities. They are both a process and a document in which communities invoke their rights as guardians of biological diversity under Article 8j of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity. Claiming rights for in-situ conservation, they also help promote Livestock Keepers’ Rights to maintain their breeds and continue their traditional management practices.

Biocultural community protocols put on record traditional knowledge and the biodiversity that communities steward, in a process that the communities themselves drive. In developing a biocultural community protocol, communities become informed about national and international laws that protect their rights. The book provides an overview of the process as well as its legal background and describes the first experiences with implementing this approach by livestock keepers in Asia and Africa.

The Minister launched the book at a meeting of livestock keepers at Kuttupalayam, Tamil Nadu, India, in August 2010.

League for Pastoral Peoples and Endogenous Livestock Development, and Local Livestock for Empowerment Network. 2010. Biocultural community protocols for livestock keepers. Lokhit Pashu-Palak Sansthan (LPPS). Sadri, Rajasthan, India

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