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This report highlightes outcomes and recommendations provided during the FAO regional expert workshop “Enhancing national climate actions to reduce methane emissions in livestock systems in Asia and the Pacific”. The regional workshop was designed to help countries in Asia and the Pacific identify new opportunities to reduce methane emissions from livestock systems in the region. The report illustrates best practices, solutions and ideas shared by countries and livestock stakeholders in Asia and the Pacific to achieve ambitious climate targets.

Diverse foods derived from livestock production systems, including grazing and pastoralist systems, and from the hunting of wild animals, provide high-quality proteins, important fatty acids and various vitamins and minerals – contributing to healthy diets for improved nutrition and health. Livestock species are adapted to a wide range of environments, including areas that are unsuitable for crop production. Globally, more than a billion people depend on livestock value chains for their livelihoods. Small-scale livestock farmers and pastoralists make up a large proportion of livestock producers. Well integrated livestock production increases the resilience of small-scale farming systems. Livestock also provide other important [...]

Trees in dryland forests and wooded areas provide key ecosystem services such as animal feed, timber, fruits and, regulation of soil and water cycles. Equally, the presence of livestock in dryland woody areas can also play an important role in the local ecosystem; not only are they a source of income for local communities, but they also help vegetation and mobilise stored biomass. When both of these ecosystem elements are wisely combined – livestock and trees – it creates an integrated agricultural system that can boost the local ecosystem, representing a welcome agro-ecological transition in livestock farming. The ‘Grazing with [...]

Mobility is a vital strategy employed by pastoralists to capitalize on the scarce availability of resources in variable environments, making pastoralism economically feasible and environmentally sustainable. Through mobility, pastoralists can produce animal-sourced products that provide food and income security to populations in the world’s rangelands. Such a practice also provides a range of benefits to the environment while fostering the capacity to adapt to changing social and natural environments. With a few exceptions, policies have largely not kept up with new scholarship and development discourse that acknowledges the importance of mobility to pastoralism. There is a lag in and resistance to [...]

Zoonotic diseases are transmitted between animals and people and impact health, livelihood and national and global health security. A multisectoral, One Health approach is necessary to address such complex heath threats at the human-animal-environment interface. Establishment of a multisectoral, One Health coordination mechanism allows countries to coordinate addressing zoonotic diseases and other shared health concerns at the human-animal-environment interface, including both leadership and technical functions, to strengthen and develop collaboration, communication, and coordination across the sectors and achieve better health outcomes. The Multisectoral Coordination Mechanism Operational Tool (MCM OT) provides a standard stepwise approach for countries to establish or strengthen a mechanism [...]

A growing number of poultry farmer field schools (FFS) are being implemented in developing countries by a wide range of actors. Experience over the past two decades has shown that good-quality facilitation and learning activities are key to the success and long-term sustainability of poultry FFS.This manual provides practical information and activities that help facilitators establish and implement good-quality FFS. It focuses on working with women and men poultry producers to sustainably enhance production, productivity and marketing in any family poultry production system, ranging from extensive to small-scale intensified, in line with producers’ aspirations and local conditions. The first module [...]

In today’s world, the risk of spread of animal health diseases, within a country or across borders, is on the rise. Contributing factors include growing animal populations, increased movement of humans and animals, market intensification and global trade. Animal health services around the world play an essential role in curbing animal disease spread. They do so by increasing their capacity to manage animal health emergencies, preparing for such events during “peacetime” and reflecting on lessons learned during the “reconstruction phase”. These actions look to enhance a country’s state of operational readiness ahead of future events.Carrying out an After Action Review [...]

This brief has been produced by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, in collaboration with the Global Dairy Platform (GDP) and the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (GRA) and with the financial support of the New Zealand Government. The FAO was approached by GDP and GRA to develop guidance following previous research on dairy cattle in order to support policy makers and livestock sector actors in implementing a process that captures the co-benefits of cattle health initiatives in their climate commitments. It provides examples in specific countries in collaboration with the World Bank and [...]

This guide constitutes a tool intended for actors on the ground in Niger. It aims to contribute to the improvement of pastoral land governance and in particular to the prevention and resolution of conflicts and to the development of inclusive consultation processes. The guide is unique because it is developed in collaboration with one for the breeders in Niger. It will be a concrete tool to help actors resolve conflicts related to access to natural resources at the local level.Also available in Arabic and French

Livestock portfolios play a significant role, as an income and consumption buffering strategy during severe droughts. The buffering potential of livestock varies by income quintile, length of the climate shock, animal species, and region. Households face trade-offs between using livestock assets to smooth the effect of the shock or protect future income generation. Livestock oriented resilience interventions should carefully consider the relationships among species, droughts, and socioeconomic groups. This study employs a unique dataset combining socioeconomic and livestock asset data from 150 000 households with a multi-scalar drought index.