Livestock products contribute to food security and nutrition in many low and middle-income countries globally. China’s the livestock sector has grown rapidly in last decades due to the increase of demand for beef, pork, chicken and eggs driven by human population growth, increasing incomes and changes in diet. About 22 percent of global meat production takes place in China and the livestock sector plays a critical to support economic growth and livelihoods, mainly in rural areas. Livestock, however, are also associated with several environmental problems that remain a challenge today, especially for the geographical concentrations of large-scale livestock operations that rely on imported feed resulting in decoupling between feed and animal production.

The FAO LEAP Partnership is a unique international forum for different livestock stakeholders ranging from governments to the private sector to build consensus on science-based methods and metrics to assess the environmental performance of livestock systems worldwide. For decades, the FAO LEAP guidelines have been crucial assets to assess the impacts of livestock systems on the environment and continue to be a unique tool to strengthen capacity and raise awareness of the role of livestock within the value chain.

In October 2022, the National Animal Husbandry Service (NAHS) affiliated to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA) of the People’s Republic of China organized a series of trainings to help national stakeholders strengthen their knowledge and understanding of the environmental footprint of livestock systems. The trainings have been designed by NAHS and co-organized with the support of Anyou Biotechnology Group and DSM, two private companies active in sustainability applied to livestock in China, with the aim to build capacity and improve the environmental impact of livestock in the country.

Several leading experts working on China’s sustainable livestock transformation opened the NAHS training series launched on 18 October 2022. Hsin Huang, Chair of the FAO LEAP Steering Committee welcomed almost 35,000 online participants from national animal husbandry institutions, colleges and universities, scientific research institutes and enterprises. Aimable Uwizeye, Livestock Policy Officer and FAO LEAP Partnership Coordinator; Ermias Kebreab, Professor at University of California Davis in USA and co-chair of the FAO LEAP Technical Advisory Groups on Methane and Feed additives; and Philippe Becquet, independent consultant, elaborated on different FAO LEAP guidelines, including their objectives, principles, and applicability to diverse farming systems and sustainability improvement plans. Tailored training materials on FAO LEAP guidelines were translated from English into Chinese.