In light of the upcoming first International Technical Conference on Animal Genetic Resources (September 2007), experts have been interviewed to tell about their experiences in the management of animal genetic resources over the past fifty years. They identified three milestones in the history of Animal Genetic Resources (AnGR) management: the foundation of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust (1973), the FAO/UNEP 1980 Technical Consultation on AnGR, and the signing of the Convention on Biological Diversity (1992). Conservation of AnGR started at grassroot level and eventually led to policies at governmental level. The passion of civil society organizations remains vital to conserve local livestock breeds. Technical and financial support will be crucial for the future of AnGR conservation. The next milestone will be a Global Plan of Action that is expected as one outcome of the International Technical Conference.

Randall Cattle are a landrace from the northeast USA. The cattle are triple-purpose and well adapted to the cold northeast geographic region. The current population descends from 14 cattle that remained after the death of the original owner, though only 12 of these represented unique founders due to interrelationships among the 14. He had kept the cattle as an isolated strain for nearly 80 years. Blood-typing results point to a north Atlantic origin for the breed, which is consistent with the history. The policy and practice of the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy has been to carefully document landraces and to assure their conservation. Focused breeding strategies have succeeded in rescuing the original 13 animals and expanding the population to nearly 300 in 2006. The breed is gaining popularity as a hardy, adapted and useful genetic resource. Breeding management has decreased overall inbreeding while at the same time managing the contributions of the various founder animals.

El sistema tradicional de producción caprina del norte de Neuquen (Patagonia, Argentina), desarrollado por “crianceros” trashumantes, es un sistema marginal de baja dotación de recursos económicos y alta fragilidad ambiental pero que dispone de un alto capital cultural, un recurso genético adaptado y un producto de calidad superior reconocida pero no diferenciado. A fin de superar esta situación se propone la aplicación de una Denominación de Origen (DO). La propuesta se basó en la organización de los integrantes de la cadena de valor de la carne caprina regional y la determinación de sus cualidades tecnológicas ligado a la raza Criolla Neuquina. Se construyó una visión común sobre el sistema y su identidad, expresada en el Protocolo de la Denominación de Origen del “Chivito Criollo del Norte Neuquino”. Los estudios sobre la tipicidad y calidad han permitido establecer indicadores de la misma y la trazabilidad del producto. El fortalecimiento de las organizaciones campesinas y la conformación de un espacio de articulación ha permitido niveles de concertación inexistentes hasta el presente que potencian el desarrollo del territorio y lo capitalizan, dando proyección a la sostenibilidad del sistema y del recurso genético.

For many years the performance of the indigenous livestock of Africa was regarded as inferior. It was only when the results of research and performance recording were published that the value of a breed such as the Nguni was acknowledged. This resulted in an interest in the breed from commercial farmers, which lead to the establishment of a breeder's society in 1986, but with no official pedigrees it was a challenge to establish a herd book.

This article describes how the principles of upgrading were initially used to develop a herd book until the Nguni was recognized as an established breed in 1996. Subsequently a system of first registration was implemented. This system caters for emerging black farmers in South Africa who want to become seed stock breeders and allows for the good quality Nguni genetic material available to the communal black farmers to enter the seed stock industry.

A large proportion of dairy foods consumed by humans are produced using milk from commercial dairy breeds. The result of high selection intensities, narrow breeding objectives and ignoring inbreeding in past decades is that much attention now needs to be given to conserving these commercial breeds to maintain and increase food production and meet future demands. The characteristics of a sustainable breeding program are broad breeding objectives, measures to control inbreeding rates and continuous genetic improvement to keep populations competitive. It is necessary to include traits in the breeding objectives that reduce the cost price of products in addition to traits that increase the output of products. Breeding objectives differ between countries (production environments), and together with genotype-environment interaction for single traits (e.g. milk yield) the implication is that ranking of animals for local breeding goals differs between countries (production environments). Acknowledging this in selection programs leads to larger number of selected animals - at least on a global level, adding to the global diversity in commercial dairy cattle populations. Interbull provides international comparisons of bulls from six dairy breeds for most of the economically important traits, thereby enabling global selection for broad breeding objectives in many countries around the world.

General trends of development imply an increasing uniformity of animal genetic resources, caused by the loss of endangered breeds and increased inbreeding within commercial breeding populations. The implications of these trends point to a reduction in the genetic diversity of the animal genetic resources, which may reduce possibilities for utilization in the future, while at the same time a dramatic change in environmental production conditions can be observed. In order to change this developmental trend, sustainable management of animal genetic resources must be promoted globally. The fundamental issues for such sustainable management are illustrated by the principles given in the Convention on Biological Diversity. In order to accomplish sustainable management of these resources, the following actions must be taken:

• The development of policies to promote national and global responsibility for maintaining genetic diversity, which will not be addressed within this paper

• The development of knowledge as a fundamental concept to impose sustainable management principles on these animal genetic resources. This will be dealt with in this paper. A more complete description of these features can be found in Woolliams et al, 2005 in (Sustainable Management of Animal Genetic Resources).

Global recognition of the need to conserve animal genetic resources comes at a time when the livestock sector faces significant challenges in meeting the growing demand for livestock products and the mitigation of negative environmental impacts caused by livestock. In developing regions it would seem that portions of the growing demand for livestock products are being met by increasing animal numbers instead of achieving increases in production efficiency. Concurrently, extensive grazing and mixed crop-livestock production systems are largely responsible for significant greenhouse gas emissions and other forms of environmental degradation. Under the growing demand and environmental sustainability rubric there exists a need to garner maximum benefit from diverse animal genetic resources. These three areas; growing demand on animal products, environmental issues, and conservation of AnGR form a nexus that national policies must simultaneously consider. To advance this integration, a policy framework is proposed that consists of incentives to produce, a secure resource base (e.g., genetic resources, land tenure) and access to markets for outputs and inputs including technology. Within this framework a set of potential policies are suggested that promote conservation, livestock sector growth and environmental sustainability.

This paper addresses major issues and challenges for Animal Genetic Resources (AnGR) and the livestock sector, as well as options for further development of policies or regulatory approaches. Three main areas were identified, i) how we can halt the further erosion of genetic diversity and promote sustainable breeding and use, ii) whether there is a need to regulate the exchange of genetic material and iii) how to balance different systems of rights (e.g. sovereign rights of nations, intellectual property rights, communal rights or rights of livestock keepers).

To halt further erosion, complementary ex-situ and in-situ conservation approaches are needed and breeding and marketing of local breeds should be strengthened. Secondly, recognizing the importance of the exchange of AnGR, broad access and responsible and equitable exchange mechanisms should be further promoted. Thirdly, regarding intellectual property rights, there is a need to adapt the application of the patent system to the special circumstances inherent in animal breeding. Moreover, possible sui generis systems should be further explored in order to better balance different rights systems.

Rather than developing a new or adapted internationally legally binding framework, the intergovernmental process under FAO may instead wish to focus, in the first instance, on the development of voluntary instruments to strengthen national policies and the implementation of action at national levels.

Debates and developments related to international agreements in the crop sector have also tended to frame the debate for AnGR. However, before launching into a discussion on whether or not an ‘FAO Animal Treaty’ would be needed, one should first of all clarify the problems to be dealt with and regulated via an international regime.

With the aim of assessing how exchange practices regarding Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (AnGR) affect the various stakeholders in the livestock sector and to identify policies and regulatory options that could guide the global exchange, use and conservation of AnGR, an exploration of future scenarios was used as a complementary approach to reviewing the current situation, as well as to identify stakeholders’ views on AnGR policy development.

Four 2050 future scenarios were developed and included:

1. Globalization and regionalization.

2. Biotechnology development.

3. Climate change and environmental degradation.

4. Diseases and disasters.

Having developed the scenarios, these were then used as an input point for a wide range of stakeholder consultations.

The findings show that such an approach has been a useful analytical tool. The ‘far’ future perspective appeared to make people less defensive, especially in a situation where current exchange problems were not yet particularly visible or well documented. Many interviewees broadly considered that it was not a question of ‘if’ the scenarios would happen, but rather a question of ‘when’. This implies that we might do well to consider the need to respond to future challenges through the proactive development of new policies or regulations. Such a finding is partly in contrast with the general perception of the current regulatory situation being broadly acceptable.

Three main areas for further development of policies or regulatory options for animal genetic resources (AnGR) were identified in a study on the exchange, use and conservation of AnGR (Hiemstra et al., 2006):

1. how to halt the further erosion of genetic diversity and promote sustainable breeding and use,

2. whether there is a need to further regulate the exchange of genetic material and

3 how to balance different systems of property and use rights.

This paper provides an in-depth analysis regarding the third challenge, that of addressing the problems and options available for balancing the different property right systems for AnGR.

Some countries have introduced a requirement for genetic impact assessments prior to granting permission for the import of new exotic livestock breeds. However, the merits of such a system are not universally accepted. During February 2007 a discussion on the subject took place on FAO's Domestic Animal Diversity Network (DAD-Net) electronic forum. This paper presents a description of how the discussion developed, and a summary of the issues raised. Arguments both for and against requiring impact assessments were put forward. Those opposing such measures focused on the risks of limiting access to animal genetic resources (AnGR), and questioned the benefits of government interference. Practical constraints to implementation and enforcement were also noted. Counter arguments pointed to the potential for avoiding the loss of valuable AnGR, and stressed governments' responsibilities to intervene where necessary to promote sustainable development, to defend the interests of the poor, or to protect national heritage. The debate ranged more widely — encompassing the respective roles of local and exotic AnGR in different regions of the world and in different production systems.