Animal genetic resources and pastoralism Beate Scherf, Barbara Rischkowsky, Irene Hoffmann, Mateusz Wieczorek, Alberto Montironi, Ricardo Cardellino Animal Production & Health Division Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Presentor: Evelyn Mathias, League for Pastoral Peoples and Endogenous Livestock Development (LPP)

Content  Global status of animal genetic resources  Pastoralism  Animal genetic resources in drylands  Threats to pastoralism

Introduction  Livestock genetic diversity for food and agriculture  animal species that are used, or may be used, for the production of food and agriculture, and the populations within each of them  populations within each species can be classified as wild and feral populations, landraces, standardized breeds, selected lines, varieties, strains and any conserved genetic material

Global strategy

What is pastoralism?  Pastoralism = adapted land use strategy  Mobility and mix of species and breeds allows  Use of scarce resources  Adaptation to seasonal changes and climate  Avoidance of diseases (e.g. tsetse flies)  Possible through  Use of species adapted to drylands (camel, yak, donkey)  Development of adapted breeds (cattle, sheep, goat)

Pastoralists  190 million (?) pastoralists  Many different societies  Occur especially in drylands: deserts, steppes, and mountains

Threats to pastoralism  Value of pastoralism recognised only recently  Threats (according to experiences LPP)  Reduced access to resources e.g. grazing lands through oagriculture (often irrigated) orecently: biofuels onational parks  Growing populations  Conflicts  Droughts  Education that disregards value of traditions