Livestock Keepers' Rights are a bundle of rights that would support the survival of small-scale livestock keepers such as pastoralists, smallholders and family farms in a general policy environment that favours large-scale industrial modes of livestock production. In the context of the current anti-livestock agenda and the claim by commercial interests that livestock will be eliminated by 2035, they are gaining added traction. The term "Livestock Keepers' Rights" was coined during the World Food Summit in 2002 by civil society attending the Forum for Food Sovereignty to flag the role of livestock keepers in animal genetic resource management. It alluded to "Farmers' Rights" as known from the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture that had been recently concluded. Background Between 2003 and 2007, a large number of grassroots consultations were carried out by and with livestock-keeping communities to define the term more closely. These consultations took place in Kenya ("Karen Comittment"), India, Italy ("Bellagio Brief") and Ethiopia ("Addis Résumé") and involved about 500 representatives of livestock keeping communities from Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe. They identified 7 cornerstones of "Livestock Keepers' Rights" that would enable livestock keepers to continue playing their role as guardians of biological diversity. During this process, Livestock Keepers’ Rights were elaborated into a much more comprehensive concept than Farmers’ Rights. Rather than representing legal rights, they correspond to development principles that would help livestock keepers continue to conserve biodiversity and animal genetic resources. Principles and Rights During a workshop with legal experts held in Kalk Bay, South Africa in December 2008, the rights were further refined and subdivided into principles and rights: Principle 1: Livestock Keepers are creators of breeds and custodians of animal genetic resources for food and agriculture. Principle 2: Livestock Keepers and the sustainable use of traditional breeds are dependent on the conservation of their respective ecosystems. Principle 3: Traditional breeds represent collective property, products of indigenous knowledge and cultural expression of Livestock Keepers. Based on these principles articulated and implicit in existing legal instruments and international agreements, Livestock Keepers from traditional livestock keeping communities and/or adhering to ecological principles of animal production, shall be given the following Livestock Keepers' Rights: Livestock Keepers have the right to make breeding decisions and breed the breeds they maintain. Livestock Keepers shall have the right to participate in policy formulation and implementation processes on animal genetic resources for food and agriculture.