In South Asia, and throughout the developing world, the predominant official approach to livestock development has been improvement of production by means of upgrading local breeds via cross-breeding with exotic animals. This strategy has led to the replacement and dilution of locally adapted breeds with non-native ones. This has resulted in an alarming loss that has been estimated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations to amount to one breed every two weeks. Based on selected case studies this paper argues that development strategies using locally adapted breeds and species are much more likely to benefit livestock keepers whilst also maintaining domestic animal diversity and bearing a smaller ecological footprint. It also analyses the rationale for "Livestock Keepers' Rights", a principle that grew out of the struggle of traditional livestock keepers to retain control over their production resources, such as grazing areas and breeding stock, in the face of unfavourable policy environments.

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'Ain Ghazal, an archeological site located on the outskirts of Amman, Jordan, is one of the largest early villages known in the Near East. The site dates to the Neolithic period, during which mankind made one of its most significant advances, the adoption of domestic plants and animals as primary subsistence sources. Recent excavations at 'Ain Ghazal have augmented considerably current knowledge of several aspects of the Neolithic. Of particular interest has been the documentation of a continuous, or near continuous, occupation from early through late Neolithic components, and a concomitant dramatic economic shift. This shift was from a broad subsistence base relying on a variety of both wild and domestic plants and animals, to an economic strategy reflecting an apparent emphasis on pastoralism.

This paper aims to suggest an alternative, or supplementary, conceptual and practical framework for livestock genetic resource conservation in developing countries. In a paradigmatic shift away from the reductionist approach of regarding 'breeds' as manifestations of certain genes that deserve to be either saved or not saved, an evolutionary model is adopted which views livestock genetic resources as products of certain specific socioeconomic conditions. This model focuses on the processes that have caused the development of domestic animal diversity historically, such as the livestock-exchange mechanisms and breeding practices that function among traditional societies. A new definition for the term 'breed' is suggested that does not only apply to western Europe and its former colonies, but also to developing countries. The need to integrate knowledge into the identification and conservation of threatened livestock breeds is emphasized. By exploring these additional dimensions, new and participatory strategies for maintaining livestock genetic diversity can be discovered, that will have a wider application than technical approaches. ZUSAMMENFASSUNG: In diesem Artikel werden alternative, bzw. zusätzliche Ansatzweisen zur Erhaltung tiergenetischer Ressourcen in Entwicklungsländern vorgeschlagen. Abweichend von der vorherrschenden reduktionistischen Perspektive, die Tierpopulationen nur noch als Träger bestimmter Allele betrachtet, wird hier ein evolutionäres Modell aufgezeigt, das tiergenetische Ressourcen als Produkte bestimmter sozioökonomischer Kontexte betrachtet. Im Mittelpunkt stehen die Prozesse, die historisch zur Entstehung der tiergenetischen Vielfalt in traditionellen Kulturen geführt haben, wie Viehaustauschmechanismen und indigene Zuchtpraktiken. Eine neue, anthropologisch orientierte Definition des Begriffs "Rasse"wird vorgeschlagen, die auch auf die phänotypisch oft nicht einheitlichen Tierpopulationen in Entwicklungsländern anwendbar ist. Die Notwendigkeit indigenes Tierzuchtwissen in die Identifikation und Erhaltung bedrohter Rassen einzubeziehen wird betont. Durch Erforschung dieser zusätzlichen Dimensionen werden sich neue partizipatorische Ansätze zur rhaltung der tiergenetischen Vielfalt entwickeln lassen, die eine breitere Anwendungsbasis haben als rein technische Maßnahmen.

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At the end of the 7th millennium the southern Levant witnessed the sudden abandonment of most of its previously thriving PPNB villages. While this phenomenon has long been attributed to external factors such as climatic change and invasions, it is suggested here that the early Neolithic economic system of village-based mixed farming was at least a contributing factor in this development. The brittle environments of most of the sites were not able to withstand the ecological pressure which human early agricultural and pastoral activities entailed : Continuous cultivation of the same crops led to loss of soil fertility and accelerated erosion, sedentary animal husbandry resulted in a degeneration of natural pasture. Ethnographic evidence is presented that early domesticated animals, especially goats, may have interfered with cultivation and required some degree of mobility for their well-being. This gradual loss of agricultural productivity could be alleviated to a certain extent by an expansion of the site catchment area, but after a critical radius and population size had been exceeded, the dilemma could only be resolved by a dispersal of the inhabitants into smaller and economically specialized groups.

- La stratégie de subsistance combinant agriculture et élevage, maintenue au PPNB pendant le début du 7L millénaire (MPPNB) dans la partie centrale et méridionale du Levant, a gravement compromis les équilibres écologiques dans le voisinage des établissements agricoles, ce qui a mené sans doute à l'abandon généralisé des villages dès 6 500 B.C. Les solutions apportées vers la fin du 7e millénaire (LPPNB) sont mal connues dans la région. Vers le début du & millénaire, une restructuration de l'économie de subsistance par un début de séparation des secteurs agricole et pastoral a permis une occupation sédentaire continue du Levant central et méridional, bien que la transformation économique ait provoqué des réajustements fondamentaux du cadre culturel. Cet ensemble distinct d'adaptations socio-économiques et culturelles est désigné par le terme de Néolithique précéramique С (PPNC).

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