The first draft report on the State of the World’s Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture has been published by FAO.

This report covers the state of agricultural biodiversity in the livestock sector, livestock sector trends, capacities in animal genetic resource management, the management of animal genetic resources, and needs and challenges.

The report is expected to be adopted by the First International Technical Conference on Animal Genetic Resources on 1-7 September 2007 in Interlaken, Switzerland.

Section 1C, on flows of animal genetic resources, was prepared by LPP's Evelyn Mathias, Ilse Koehler-Rollefson and Paul Mundy.

Click here to download Section 1C only 1240 kb

Click here to download whole document 2.43 Mb (for first section, which gives access to other chapters as separate downloads)

About 50 stakeholders in livestock keeping, breeding and management from nine African countries, Europe and India met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on 24-25 May 2007, to discuss the future of Africa’s domestic livestock and poultry breeds and diversity.

The participants urged that Livestock Keepers’ Rights be adopted into the agenda of the intergovernmental Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. They also pointed to the need to investigate the implications of patenting and other forms of intellectual property rights on the sustainable management of animal genetic resources.

The meeting was organized by the Ethiopian Society of Animal Production, the Ethiopian Institute of Biodiversity Conservation, the International Endogenous Livestock Development Network, the LIFE Network, LPP, and Pastoralist Forum Ethiopia.

Summary report 56 kb

A new coalition called "No Patents on Seeds" www.no-patents-on-seeds.org has called for a global ban on patents on seeds and farm animals. The coalition includes Greenpeace, SwissAid and Coldiretti (the biggest Italian farmers' organization) , and is supported by more than 30 farmers' organizations and hundreds of other organizations worldwide.

pdf 18 kb