Overview of Livestock Contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals
Fritz Schneider
Expert panel: Sustainable solutions for the livestock sector. the time is ripe! 10th Global Forum for Food and Agriculture, Berlin, 19 January 2018
But also water resources, biodiversity, human health …
Livestock – compelling figures
Livestock matters to human development!
o Demand for livestock products is growing rapidly due to growing incomes, urbanisation, population growth and changing food habits
o To meet the demand traditional smallholder livestock systems and modern forms of intensive livestock production are needed
o Smallholder systems have an enormous potential to increase production and to reduce the GHG emissions per unit produced
o Livestock has environmental impacts
• Both positive and negative impacts need to be addressed
The Global Agenda for Sustainable Livestock
Global Food Security and HealthEquity and Growth Resources and Climate
> 100 members
The Global Agenda in support of the Sustainable Development Goals
The Reference Frame of the Global Agenda
The Global Agenda and the SDGs
o All SDGs are relevant to the livestock sector
o The Global Agenda has identified nine with particular importance for the sector
900 mio. people living on less than 1.9 US$ per day, 750 mio. depending directly on livestock
Livestock contributes to pathways out of poverty by:
o Increasing resilience. E.g. by sustainable mixedfarming practices
o Improving smallhoder and pastoral productivity
o Increasing market participation of small andmarginal livestock keepers
To end poverty is not possible without givingdue imortance to livestock
SDG 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere
Livestock provide 14 % of the total calories and 33 % ofthe protein in people’s diets at global level
o Animal based products provide micronutrients
o Livestock provides draught power and manure forcrop production. Extremely important for millions ofsmallholders in mixed farming systems
o Livestock converts grass, straw, agro-industrial by-products into high quality food
o Only 14 % of the global animal feed is fit for human consumption
In intensive systems there remains a feed – foodcompetition which needs to be tackled toimprove sustainability
SDG 2: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promotesustainable agriculture
Animal-source foods are important to nutrition forchildren, pregnant women and for the elderly
o Animal based foods provide a wide range ofmicronutrients and vitamins
o Looking at human and animal health together canimprove human and animal well being substantially
> 60 % of animal diseases are zoonotic
Antimicrobial resistance needs to be reduced byreducing use of anibiotics in livestock production
SDG 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
o Livestock provides up to 40 % of agricultural GDP
o Livestock is one of the fastest growing economicsectors in developing countries
o Capturing the economic benefits of the expandinglivestock market can help to sustain overalleconomic growth
o The development of national «Livestock Master Plans» to support effective investmentplanning to optimize livestock’s contribution toeconomic growth is key to achieve this goal
SDG 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
7 Multi-stakeholder Partnership (MSP) meeting
o Hunger, malnutrition and stunting on the one hand
o Overconsumption on the other hand
o Food waste: Almost one third of produced food islost or wasted between field and fork
o In industrialised countries most lossses occure at the consumer level
o In developing countries the losses occure in thepost harvest processes
The multiple stakeholders of the livestock sector have to work harder towards a moreresponsible consumption and production ofanimal based products along the entire valuechain, including consumers
SDG 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
o Livestock with its GHG emissions is contributingsignificantely to climate change
o Livestock keepers are affected by climate change. E.g. more frequent draughts and floods
o Resilience to climate change in livestock productioncan be built by improving water management andbreeding for drought resistance.
Resent studies have shown that livestock production has a huge potential to reduce GHGemissions. Packages of mitigtation techniquescan bring large environmental benefits.
SDG 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impact
o 26 % of terrestrial areas of the planet are pastures
o > 25 % of cropland is dedicated to feed and fodderproduction, more than half of it is not suitable toproduce food crops
o Inproper rangeland management, overstocking andovergrazing leads to desertification
Improved grazing management can contributeto grassland restoration, carbon sequestrationand can reduce deforestation. Good examplesare agro forestry and sylvopastoral systems.
SDG 15: Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems,sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, halt andreverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss
o Gender equality is a cross-cutting issue
o Of the > 750 million poor livestock keepers, about two thirds are rural women
o Women often have better access to livestock thanto agricultural land
To be successful towards sustainablelivestock development, gender aspects haveto be part of all interventions
SDG 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
o A successful sustainable development agendarequires partnerships between governments, theprivate sector , research and civil society.
o In the livestock sector, stakeholders have joinedtogether to form the…..
….recognizing the UN SDGs as their strategy
SDG 17: Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development
o Facts are known
o The analyses are done
o The many involved stakeholders havepositioned themselves– Public sector,
– Academia research,
– Private sector,
– NGOs,
– Civil society,
– Financial sector)
o The UN Agenda 2030 with the SDGs is acceptedas common reference frame
Conclusions 1: Context is well known and understood
Now it’s time to deliver,
the time is ripe!
Conclusions 2: Time for decisive action, time to deliver!
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