Animal genetic resources are essential for food security from at least two angles:
- As a means of utilizing marginal environments not suitable for crop cultivation.
- As building blocks for future livestock development that will enable animal producers to respond to changes in production circumstances and new consumer preferences.
Since the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources was signed, there have been moves to negotiate an equivalent agreement for animal genetic resources. According to FAO, one-third of the world’s livestock breeds are endangered. So there is a strong rationale for a legal framework to create an appropriate context for the sustainable use of animal genetic resources.
Livestock breeds are linked to cultural diversity, and there is often a link between ethnic or social groups and specific breeds. For livestock (unlike plants), only in situ conservation (in the original production context) achieves all conservation goals. There is a consensus that ex situ conservation should be used only as a backup.
Scientists also agree that while animal genetic resources are subject to national sovereignty, regional and international cooperation is necessary. Breeds occur across borders, and market failures to conserve genetic diversity warrant public intervention. Market forces currently favour intensive or industrialized animal monocultures, while production systems that conserve genetic diversity are not rewarded for this service. The European experience with incentive payments demonstrates one way to support breed conservation.
Remote, arid and semi-arid areas have given rise to a disproportionately large number of different breeds, which also have a great degree of intra-breed diversity. Pastoral livestock production systems, in particular, inherently conserve genetic diversity. Many of the countries and regions that are richest in animal genetic resources are among the most food-insecure, while their pastoral populations are among the poorest and most vulnerable in the world. By conserving livestock genetic diversity, pastoralists provide a service to humanity that is currently not rewarded by market forces.
Supporting dryland communities through better infrastructure, services, animal health care, marketing opportunities and other interventions would make a significant contribution to both poverty alleviation and food security on one hand, as well as to the conservation and sustainable management of animal genetic resources.
An international legal framework on animal genetic resources would seek to create a level playing field between dryland production systems that conserve genetic diversity, and intensive and industrialized systems that erode it.
In international negotiations, coalitions tend to form around specific issues to press for their interests. Dryland countries with pastoral populations and rich animal genetic resources could form such a bloc for negotiations on an international legal framework on animal genetic resources.
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