I’m here in Rome for the 7th Session of the Intergovernmental Technical Working Group on Animal Genetic Resources. Agenda-items include the preparation of the second report on the state of the world’s animal genetic resources, the role of small-scale livestock keepers, and Access and Benefit-Sharing. The latter is a subject that requires a lot more thought, although in a side-event hosted yesterday by the governments of the Netherlands and of Brazil, three of the stakeholder groups outlined some initial ideas. Cleopas Okore from the Kenyan government reported about his country’s experience with developing Biocultural Community Protocols (based on the Samburu Biocultural Protocol), while Dawn Howard from EFFAB (European Forum of Farm Animal Breeders) represented the industry perspective. I had been invited to present the results of the Working group on Biocultural Protocols and ABS held during our Bonn Conference.
There will be more discussion on this today in the plenary. It will be interesting to see what the various regions and individual countries will have to say! I will keep you posted!
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