العربية
中文
english
français
italiano
Português
Русский
Español
AR
ZH
EN
FR
IT
PT
RU
ES
FAO.org
Search in Media only
Toggle navigation
Home
Home archive
Stories
About FAO
About us
What we do
Who we are
How we work
Strategic planning
Structure
Visit us
Meetings
Governing Body documents
In Action
FAO at work
FAO projects
Countries
Country Profiles
Geopolitical ontology
Country codes/names
Low-Income Food-Deficit Countries
Data sources
Geographic and Economic Groups
Themes
Media
News releases
Video
Photo
Audio
Webcast
Infographics
News archive
Contacts
Publications
Statistics
Overview
Databases
Statistical capacity development
Standards
Partnerships
Overview
Background
Documents
News
Success stories
Videos
Events
Print
Send
Home
>
Media
>
News Article
New guidelines for livestock emergencies
LEGS to help save livelihoods as well as lives
LEGS helps protect herders' livelihoods
7 May 2009, Rome
- Following the disastrous 2005 earthquake in Pakistan, several humanitarian organizations came forward to help households who had lost their livestock to rebuild herds and flocks by providing replacement animals.
But most of the animal shelters in the affected areas had been destroyed, and there was also a major shortage of winter feed. Consequently, many of the animals donated failed to survive.
A newly-developed set of Livestock Emergency Guidelines and Standards (LEGS) published today is designed to prevent similar mistakes recurring and to ensure that the livelihoods of vulnerable livestock keepers are protected in future crises.
Specifically, the LEGS initiative includes a set of international guidelines, decision support tools and standards for the design, implementation and assessment of livestock interventions on behalf of populations in need of emergency relief.
Appropriate interventions
It will assist specialists in livestock and humanitarian assistance involved in responding to emergencies to identify the most appropriate livestock interventions in collaboration with local communities and service providers. LEGS addresses three central objectives:
Providing rapid assistance to crisis-affected populations
Assisting them to rebuild those assets
Protecting their livestock assets
“The initiative is of particular relevance in the current global context of climate change,” says FAO Senior Livestock Officer Simon Mack. Accompanied by more frequent extreme weather events, climate change is causing a growing number of humanitarian crises which often affect livestock-reliant communities in particular.
Translation of LEGS into French, Arabic and Spanish and a comprehensive programme of training users of LEGS will be undertaken with the support of the UK Department of International Development (DFID) and the European Union.
LEGS is a cooperative initiative between a number of different institutions and organizations including FAO, Feinstein Center (Tufts University), The African Union, the International Committee for the Red Cross and
Vétérinaires sans frontières
(VSF) Europa.
For further information visit the LEGS website
http://www.livestock-emergency.net/
, where a hard copy can be purchased and a free downloadable version will soon be available.
Share this page