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!