Transcript Slide 1
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
o agriculture (often irrigated)
o recently: biofuels
o national parks
Growing populations
Conflicts
Droughts
Education that disregards value of traditions