Production and management of camels

Bakht Baidar Khan, Arshad Iqbal and Muhammad Riaz

Published by the Department of Livestock Management, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan, 2003

For more information, contact Arshad Iqbal at aiqbal_uaf@yahoo.com

The League for Pastoral Peoples and Endogenous Livestock Development (LPP) is formally accredited with the World Intellectual Property Organization, WIPO.

WIPO is the United Nations body responsible for coordinating patents, copyrights and other forms of intellectual property.

LPP member Susanne Gura attended the 9th Meeting of WIPO’s Intergovernmental Committee on Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore in Geneva on 25 April.

She drew the committee’s attention to the contribution of pastoralists to developing livestock breeds, many of which have benefited the livestock industries of other countries. Patenting of breeds would impede these benefits.

“We believe that it is right to pay a good price for a good breeding animal, but it is wrong to monopolize the genes. We also believe it would be wrong to grant patents on breeding methods that are applied by most pig breeders around the globe. Patent applications on such pig breeding methods have been submitted last year in 160 countries,” she said.

“Once patents are granted, it is very costly to challenge them”, she pointed out.

Dr Gura asked the committee to consider the issue of Livestock Keepers’ Rights, as formulated by pastoralists and NGOs from around the world, and to involve pastoralists from different communities in its discussions.

Full text of Dr Gura’s statement

 
Livestock and livestock keepers are usually neglected during international discussions on biological diversity, which tend to focus on wildlife, wild plants and crops.

LPP is trying to attract international attention to this issue, and to the threats facing livestock breeds and the people who keep them.

 
Speaking on behalf of LPP, Mr Vivekanandan of SEVA, India, highlighted the need for Livestock Keepers’ Rights at an international conference on biological diversity in Curitiba, Brazil, on 22 March 2006.

Vivekanandan’s statement 17 kb

See also www.biodiv.org.