Therefore, just as cultural heritage sites are preserved as a global human heritage, some of the rare and endangered domesticated breeds may need incentives for local communities to conserve these even on immediate non-utilitarian ground. Although in the long term even these breeds may provide genes for unique traites. In any case, the knowledge system will provide the indigenous heuristics of selection, breeding, maintenance and utilization which are unlikely to emerge only from the formal breeding discipline. Indigenous knowledge has technological and institutional dimensions. One cannot be conserved without other.
Technology is like words and institutions, the grammar.
Indigenous technological knowledge helps in understanding the interactions among site, specie, season and socio cultural institutions around different breeds. Disruption in one link in the chain can disrupt the entire socio ecological system making conservation of breeds very difficult. These indicators can also help in community based eco system health monitoring so that the linkage between habitat and breed conservation is not ruptured. While men may have been responsible for breeding in many species, it is invariably the women who have maintained and managed the livestock and developed variety of their products. Gender dimension of knowledge system is extremely crucial and its neglect can thwart the entire mission of conservation.