Livestock keepers in India conserve a large number of valuable breeds of animals like cows, buffaloes, sheep, goats, camels as well as poultry. The livelihoods of livestock Keepers are under threat by the progressive loss of grazing lands, limitations to mobility and lack of participation in decision making, as also by industrial and corporate models of livestock breeding, which include privatization of genetic resources through intellectual property rights and the free market system, These communities are entitled to have rights over their germplasm and their knowledge.