Strategizing for Livestock Keepers' Rights

An international LIFE Network meeting was held from August 13-15 in Kuttapalayam, India. The meeting was attended by around 60 representatives of communities, community-based organizations, and networks and sought to map the LIFE Network's strategy for a campaign on livestock keepers’ rights over the next few years. The meeting also explored the past, present, and future roles of bio-cultural community protocols in the campaign for livestock keepers rights'. The meeting included members of other livestock and pastoral networks, including the World Alliance of Mobile Indigenous Peoples (WAMIP) and the Rainfed Livestock Network (RLN).

Kabir Bavikatte (Natural Justice) supported a full session on the emerging livestock keepers' bio-cultural community protocols and their role in the global campaign on livestock keepers’ rights and national struggles to secure the rights of those communities. The meeting specifically focused on the need for the LIFE Network and its partners to set strong standards and process requirements for the development of community protocols, to take internal ownership of the protocols, and to ensure that best practice is subscribed to in the development of every protocol. The meeting unpacked and critically analyzed the methods and content of the Raika, Maldhari, Bargur Lingayat, and Samburu protocols, identifying the shortcomings and strengths in each of their processes and outcomes. The meeting concluded with a resolution to further explore how the LIFE Network and its partners can establish standards for the development of bio-cultural community protocols in the livestock sector.

A recent publication by the LIFE Network, LPP, and LPPS entitled, "Biocultural Community Protocols for Livestock Keepers" can be read here.