Coopérer pour gérer des races locales : conception, rôles et usages des instruments scientifiques de sélection

The management of domestic animal genetic resources is a topic of pressing concern given developing trends such as the liberalization of genetic resources markets, the increasing number of patents and intellectual property rights and the withdrawal of governments from the organization and control of breeding activities. Managing territorialized common goods of this nature calls for cooperative mechanisms involving a wider range of actors than so far. How to steer these mechanisms and handle crises in cooperation that can impede them, is crucial to maintaining biodiversity. This article proposes an analytical framework to analyze and facilitate cooperation in distributed breeding organizations. This framework is the result of an intervention research into breeding organizations for three local breeds of milk sheep in the Western-Pyrenees. By investigating the design and uses of scientific, technical and management instruments on which breeding activities and organization rely, we identified three dimensions to be considered in the analysis of cooperation for animal resources management: a) tensions between the design and uses of scientific instruments for genetic gain achievement; b) tensions between the evaluation of animals using scientific instruments and the evaluation of animals based on breeder know-how in qualifying animal common resources; c) diversity of farmer strategies and functioning of the market for breeding goods and services resulting from the activities conducted in the two previous dimensions (production of genetic gain, qualification of the common resources).