This is the home of the Endogenous Livestock Development Network.
Endogenous livestock development focuses on livestock and people. It promotes animal production based on the initiatives of farmers, pastoralists and other livestock keepers. It relies on their own worldview, values, knowledge, institutions and resources, and mixes them with suitable outside resources.
The ELD Network aims to:
Create a global umbrella for learning, collaboration and networking
Deepen the understanding of people-centered livestock development
Support field-based ELD initiatives
Influence livestock-related education, research and policies.
With less than a week to go until Copenhagen, livestock is increasingly being cited as one of the major producers of greenhouse gasses. Replacing livestock products with meat- and dairy analogs based on soy, rice or wheat, is suggested as the most desirable way out. Unfortunately, reality is more complex than this. Livestock is not produced in one way, which can simply be replaced. Livestock emissions largely depend on how animals are raised and fed. Fortunately, other international reports (IPCC, FAO) indicate another way out: increased sequestration of soil carbon through sustainable use of soils and other resources in agriculture.
Video - Exploring Endogenous Livestock Development in Cameroon
In Africa, knowledge and practices concerning livestock keeping were passed on from generation to generation. Then other ways of development came, that implied more dependency on resources from outside. Today farmers from North-West Cameroon value once more what they have known and lived with for centuries. This film shows how farmers and extension workers re-discovered the potential of 'development from within'.
Endogenous livestock development means putting small-scale livestock keepers and pastoralists at the centre of their own development. It means building on what they already do, and supporting their initiatives to improve their livelihoods, instead of imposing "solutions" from outside.
This is the home of the Endogenous Livestock Development Network.
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With less than a week to go until Copenhagen, livestock is increasingly being cited as one of the major producers of greenhouse gasses. Replacing livestock products with meat- and dairy analogs based on soy, rice or wheat, is suggested as the most desirable way out. Unfortunately, reality is more complex than this. Livestock is not produced in one way, which can simply be replaced. Livestock emissions largely depend on how animals are raised and fed. Fortunately, other international reports (IPCC, FAO) indicate another way out: increased sequestration of soil carbon through sustainable use of soils and other resources in agriculture.