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Through the Wilderswil Declaration,30 organisations have unanimously protested against industrial monopoly over livestock in the absence of inadequate legal protection to livestock and conserve livestock diversity in the name of community rights. The proponents of livestock diversity conservation have came together in a recent move to oppose the industrial monopoly of livestock production. In parallel with FAO ’s International Technical Conference on Animal Genetic Resources held in Interlaken.the representatives of 30 organisations of pastoralists, indigenous peoples, smallholder farmers and NGOs came together in Wilderswil at the “Livestock Diversity Forum:Defending Food Sovereignty and Livestock Keepers ’ Rights. This meeting was a protest against the support to industrial livestock production by the Global FAO Action Plan.The participants felt that the industrial model is being deliberately imposed on them through land grabs and eviction based on systems of private property ownership,forced sedenterisation policies and disruption of pastoral migration routes, liberalisation of markets, contract farming, large scale economic development projects, agrofuel production schemes and even through policies that aim to conserve nature through national parks and protected areas. The use of technology as cloning and genetic modification are other tools used in the industrial breeding techniques which has destroyed the local people’s life. Tragically,these policies have led to an increase in competition for the appropriation of natural resources. Capacity building exercise for community rights. They realised that on the basis of indiscriminate introduction of new breeds, there is loss of local breeds, family based production, smallholder bankruptcies and suicides. In a move to counter the pressure from the industrial model, they raised their voice for capacity building exercise on this issue, including: · Livestock keeping that is on a human scale. · Planning a way of life linked with our cultures and spirituality and not just aimed at production. · Supporting the framework of food sovereignty which was developed by small farmers ’ movements and others, who face similar problems stemming from industrial agriculture. · Building alliances with other social movements with similar aims and continue to build international other services, culture, education and training, access to local markets, access to information and decision making, that are all essential for truly sustainable livestock production systems. · Fighting for the rights of livestock keepers, which include the right to land, water, veterinary and · Finding ways of sharing access to land and other natural resources equitably. To sum up, it was felt that states should recognise the customary laws, territories, traditions, customs and institutions of local communities and indigenous peoples,which constitute the recognition of the self-determination and autonomy of these peoples. Legally binding international instruments once in place would oblige States to guarantee the full respect of the rights of the communities.
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