Livestock and environment at ILRI:
Past, present and future
Polly Ericksen
ILRI@40 Livestock and Environment workshop
Addis Ababa, 7 November 2014

ILRI@40 DAY 1 CHALLENGES:
• sustainable food production in context
population growth and need for productivity
gains
– "efficiency"
– animal waste
– "appropriate" technologies
• climate change; but whose issue? Health?
breeding? Everyone?
• understanding all agriculture as a business
enterprise and worth with the transformation
• how best to make science outputs "accessible”?

ILRI@40 DAY 1 Key Note:
– drivers: rising demand; climate change; resource
scarcity;
– Impacts: context varies! but aggregate impact of GHG
suggests ag is 20-30%; livestock is 75% of that.
– strong link between productivity and emissions
intensity.
– livestock are natural adaptors.
– livestock impact biodiversity: pastures; arable land;
positive roles as well. Land sharing vs sparing..

ILRI@40 DAY 1 CHALLENGES:
– response options:
• protect resources
• increase resilience
• increase efficiency
• improve governance
• CO-benefits to the responses.
• this is super complex agenda!

Highlights of the ILRI L&E past: focus
on the "bads" and "goods"
• Wildlife-Livestock interactions
• GHG emissions
• impact CC on livestock
• characterisation of livestock systems; getting
numbers right!
• risk management in drylands
• Livestock and water

L&E present:
• sustainable intensification as a hypothesis in a
range of livestock systems
• measuring the environmental footprint -- getting
the data right
• ecosystem services as a commercial opportunity
with co-benefits or vice versa?
• adaptation to climate change and resilience to
climate shocks
• targeting of interventions, understanding how to
scale up (beyond characterisation)

L&E future
• impacts of climate change on ecology and
production environments
• clear idea of how and why PES work (and
don't) and for whom (poor, women)
• environmental governance
• compelling body of evidence on mitigation
and adaptation interventions
– e.g. biogas, breed improvement
– e.g. women's costs and benefits

L&E future
• decision support for adaptation and resilience
investments
• decision support for sustainable
intensification interventions
• “complex” systems analysis