**3.2 Traditional ecological customary laws related to the genetic diversity of livestock**

Traditional ecological customary rules also contribute to the conservation of animal husbandry by classifying, managing, and enriching livestock breed genetic variety. For instance, in Deqin County, in Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in


#### **Table 1.**

*Diversity of upland rice and configuration of planting environment – Land type 1 (Zhexiao).*


#### **Table 2.**

*Diversity of upland rice and configuration of planting environment – Land type 2 (Zhejiao).*


#### **Table 3.**

*Diversity of upland rice and configuration of planting environment – Land type 2 (Dieta).*

northeastern Yunnan, ancient ecological customary regulations governing Tibetan animal husbandry are incredibly beneficial for the conservation and sustainable use of cattle genetic variety. The customary laws governing animal husbandry contain measures governing the foundation for selection, methods of conservation, breeding hybrids, and feeding procedures for indigenous livestock breeds, thereby preserving the genetic variety of indigenous livestock represented by cattle. It can be said that the resources of traditional livestock breeds are the product of breeding and selection conducted by Tibetan herders under applicable customary laws. These breeds exemplify the practice and creativity associated with traditional Tibetan animal husbandry's traditional ecological customary regulations, accurately portraying the genetic diversity of traditional livestock breeds. Additionally, these breed resources are inextricably linked to and supplementary to animal husbandry's ancient ecological customary rule.

*Traditional Ecological Customary Law for Conservation and Sustainability in Biodiversity DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.105918*

The large livestock raised by indigenous Tibetan animal husbandry in Deqin consists primarily of cattle, sheep, pigs, horses, and mules, with cattle being the most important. Thus, traditional animal husbandry has developed a customary rule governing cattle breeds, the center of which is a categorization system for cattle. According to the general categorization, local cattle breeds are classified as yak, dzo, and cattle; In the local indigenous language, this classification system is more complicated, and the breed of cattle is classified into seven distinct types, i.e., Ra, a male yak; Nega is the female yak, Yong is the male yak, Ba is the female yak, the hybrid dzo between a male yak and a female ox is called Zong; Gele is the female dzo; the male dzo is called Nezu, which is a cross between a male yak and a female yak; the female dzo is referred to as Le; Ai is a cross between female Gele and male cattle; a cross between female Gele and male yak is referred to as Dele, and Ai hybridizes male cattle to obtain the Jimo (**Figure 2**).

According to the traditional ecological customary law of animal husbandry, the local herdsmen herd the seven types of different breeds of cattle on pastures at different altitudes (**Table 4**).

Local herders will also select, protect, breed, and cross the seven breeds of cattle according to customary law to adapt to the local natural environment, ecosystem, and climatic conditions as Yak, Nezu, Le, Ai are cold-hardy that like cold climates breeds, grazing in high-altitude alpine pastures all year round; Cattle and Jimo are cold-hardy varieties that favor warm climates and graze in low-altitude valley pastures all year round; while Zong, Gele, and Ai belong to both cold and warm climates breed, they are rotated and transferred between the three types of pastures. These traditional ecological customary laws based on animal husbandry objectively protect and enrich the genetic diversity of livestock breeds represented by cattle [24]. Similarly, there are many similar cases in other ethnic groups and regions in Yunnan, such as the conservation and promotion of the genetic diversity of livestock breeds through the traditional ecological custom by Dulong people in Nujiang for Dulong cattle and Dulong chicken and improvement and enrichment of the genetic diversity of camellia chicken breeds by Dai people's traditional ecological habits in Xishuangbanna.


#### **Table 4.**

*Diversity of cattle breeds and configuration rules of pasture grazing environment.*
