5th October, 14:45: Presentation: Dr. Saverio Krätli, editor of the journal Nomadic Peoples and Dr. Ilse Köhler-Rollefson, coordinator League for Pastoral Peoples and Endogenous Livestock Development:
“Access-Benefit Sharing of WHAT? Potential and pitfalls of Biocultural Community Protocols and implications for investments in pastoral regions”.
Description:
Following the Nagoya Protocol’s Access-Benefit Sharing framework (Convention on Biological Diversity), the African Union is planning to produce ‘Biocultural Community Protocols’ with pastoralist communities on continental scale. These protocols are supposed to be community-based legal instruments defining the modalities for governments and private sector to access pastoralists’ ‘animal genetic resources’ and related knowledge. At the same time, discussions around the implementation of the Nagoya Protocol are being facilitated by FAO at the Intergovernmental Technical Working Group on Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. A focus on ‘material transfer agreements’ is moving the discussion away from the opportunity to include pastoralists’ interests. In both cases, a danger lies with the emphasis on ‘genetic’ or ‘natural’ resources, which effectively negates pastoralists’ resources by representing them exclusively in terms of what can be of use to outsiders. The potential of Biocultural Community Protocols in guiding investments in pastoralist areas is examined in this light.
The meeting will be held at the HQ of IIED in London, UK. The address of IIED offices is 80-86 Gray’s Inn Road, London, UK.