Interlaken conference reports

The official report from the International Technical Conference on Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, held in Interlaken, Switzerland, on 3-7 September 2007, is available from FAO. This document includes the Interlaken Declaration on Animal Genetic Resources as well as a Global Plan for Animal Genetic Resources, both adopted by the official delegates to the conference.

The conference also adopted a comprehensive summary on livestock breeds. Titled The State of the World’s Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, this report includes inputs from LPP’s Ilse Köhler-Rollefson, Evelyn Mathias and Paul Mundy.

Non-government organizations organized a side event that ran at the same time as the main conference. This side event focused on aspects that the official government delegates to the conference risked neglecting: the important role of livestock keepers in conserving breed diversity, the role played by the livestock industry in eroding diversity, and the need to switch the focus of livestock development away from animal productivity and towards the needs and potential of the livestock keepers.

LPP and Raika delegates at the Conference

LPP was involved in several of the side event activities:

Susanne Gura organized a session on the livestock genetics industry and its impact in developing countries
Ilse Köhler-Rollefson organized a session on conserving genes, creating livelihoods – not without livestock keepers rights
Evelyn Mathias organized a session on endogenous livestock development – supporting poor livestock keepers
P. Vivekanandan of the LIFE Network (of which LPP is a member) organized a session community level conservation of indigenous animal breeds in India.

In addition, Ilse Köhler-Rollefson and other LIFE members provided reactions to papers presented during a Scientific Forum that immediately preceded the main conference.