Meetings, Seminars and Workshops

Livestock and Watershed Management Workshop
Hyderabad, India -- March 2002

Representatives of LEAD attended a planning workshop in Hyderabad, India for a joint collaborative research and development program on the role of livestock in watershed management in selected Indian sites on March 18 - 21, 2002.

Dr. Henning Steinfeld and Dr. Mauricio Rosales from the LEAD Initiative attended the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation /LEAD Initiative planning workshop. The proposal, which focuses on livelihood support and environmental sustainability, intends to provide decision-makers with the necessary information and planning tools to optimally position livestock in watershed development and related projects.

The workshop established an agreement on the structure of a proposal and the preparation of a letter of agreement for the implementation of the project. It also determined key factors such as the criteria for the selection of case study areas; identification of the main determinants of structural and functional changes in livestock, environment and poverty interactions; assessment of impact of the changes; and the nature of recommendations that the study will realistically be able to provide.

Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) has been a pioneer in introducing innovations and new concepts in watershed development since the middle 1980s, through Participative Integrated Development of Watersheds. The efforts of the SDC will be assisted by the LEAD Initiative, has assembled design and planning tools to facilitate the decision-making process on issues regarding the interaction of livestock, environment and development. These tools include impact analysis programs, predictive computer models, geographical information systems, databases, and socio-economic analysis programs.

The workshop was attended by 28 participants, including SDC officials, representatives from six Indian states, on-going watershed development programs, and other donor and non-governmental organisation representatives.

List of participants:

1. Mr Siva Prasad, AFPRO Hyderabad
2. Ms Sagari Ramdas, Anthra, Hyderabad
3. Ms Nitya Ghotge, Anthra Pune
4. Mr B.N.Yugandhar, Hyderabad (*)
5. Mr NK Sanghi, MANAGE, Hyderabad
6. Mr BK Mathur, CAZRI, Jodhpur
7. Mr T.Pradeep, Samuha, Bangalore
8. Dr MPG Kurup, Anand
9. Dr BR Mangurkar, Pune
10. Dr Ravikumar, Bangalore
11. Mr Abraham Samuel, WOTR, Ahmednagar
12. Mr Arvind Khare
13. Dr Sreenivasa Rao, Deptt of Animal Husbandry, Govt of AP, Hyderabad (*)
14. Dr GNS Reddy, BAIF, Karnataka
15. Mr J Jangal, PSMU, ISPWDK, Bangalore
16. Mr Henk op het Veld, NRMP-AP, Hyderabad
17. Ms Rebecca Katticaren, NRMP-AP, Hyderabad
18. Mr Vinod Goud, NGO Programme, NRMP-AP, Hyderabad
19. Mr Jan Morrenhof, NRM Programme, Orissa, Bhubaneswar
20. Mr Udo Hoeggel
21. Mr Andreas Schild
22. Mr Fritz Schneider, Vice Director, Swiss College of Agriculture
23. Ms Olivia Faessler, HO IC Bern
24. Ms Lucy Maarse, SDC/IC COOF
25. Mr NR Jagannath, SDC/IC COOF
26. Mr KR Viswanathan, SDC/IC COOF
27. Dr. Henning Steinfeld, FAO-LEAD
28. Dr. Mauricio Rosales, FAO-LEAD



LEAD group meets to appraise progress, enhance IT use
*** This article comes from "WAICENT in the News". For more information on the World Agricultural Information Centre (WAICENT), click here.

Almost two years after its first English language Internet platform was successfully launched in Rome, the team behind the Livestock, Environment and Development (LEAD) Initiative, met on March 11-13, 2002 to discuss the 2002-03 work programme and look at ways in which innovative information technologies can enhance its effectiveness.

LEAD is a cross-institutional initiative that works to highlight the fragile relationship between livestock and the environment in developing nations and advises local policy makers on technologies and regulations to ease pressure on natural resources such as rainforests and national parks.

Based out of FAO headquarters in Rome, the initiative now includes a Francophone platform located at the Centre for International Cooperation on Agricultural Research for the Development (CIRAD) in Montpellier, France and a Spanish-language platform housed at the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE) in Costa Rica.

“The platforms are semi-autonomous and that approach means that they can grow organically and respond to local issues quickly and more effectively in the local language,” says Mauricio Rosales, Manager of LEAD’s Virtual Research and Development Centre in Rome. “FAO provides technology, software, advice and the logistical framework but they themselves decide on research goals and approach.”

A jump in global interest over environmental concerns in the late nineties led to the creation of the initiative which is now funded by several European governments as well as a number of international development institutions.

“Many farmers in developing countries work within a national policy framework that gives them no incentive to stop or change the way animals interact with the environment. In some countries ownership of the land is proved once you have cut the forest down and settled it, in other cases a national park has been created in the middle of a nomadic grazing route and people who have used it for centuries are barred from entering,” Rosales explains. “LEAD’s mandate is to target top-tier policy makers and work closely with local institutions so that they themselves can make the legal and institutional difference.”

The meeting was attended by WAICENT, FAO departments and representatives from CATIE in Costa Rica and CIRAD in Montpellier.



Appraisal Mission of the Regional Silvo-Pastoral Project
Turrialba, Costa Rica -- December 2001

Theresa Bradley Paola Agostini Henning Steinfeld Cees de Haan Muhammad Ibrahim Eva Margarita Sanchez Juan Pablo Ruiz Elias Ramirez Roustan Carlos Barrios
Mauricio Rosales
Jose Gobbi
Enrique Murqueitio

Scroll over the image to identify the members in the group!

Representatives of the World Bank and FAO-LEAD carried out a mission in Costa Rica with representatives of the Centro Agronomico Tropical de Investigacion y Ensenanza (CATIE), the Centre for Research on Sustainable Agricultural Production Systems (CIPAV), the Institute of Research and Development of the University of Central America in Nicaragua (Nitlapan) and the American Bird Conservancy (ABC) to evaluate the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Regional Silvopastoral Project, "Integrated Silvopastoral Approaches to Ecosystem Management" on December 3 - 8, 2001.

While in Costa Rica the team had to define payment plans for environmental services, establish a method for monitoring biodiversity, more clearly define the political components involved in the project and assemble an operational manual. They also finalized the implementation agreements and drafted contracts between CATIE and the executive agencies as well as between the executive agencies and participating farmers.

The mission established numerous elements including economic factors, such as the compensation for environmental services based on land use changes rather than vegetation cover; legal factors, such as those regarding contracts for farmers; and administrative factors, such as institutional regulations that refer to the hire of services or purchase of goods.

The "Integrated Silvopastoral Approaches to Ecosystem Management" regional project was presented to GEF through the World Bank. The project works torwards the improvement of functionality of ecosystems and degraded pastures in Colombia, Costa Rica and Nicaragua through the development of intensive silvopastoral systems that provide global environmental services and local socio-economic benefits.

For more information on the GEF project, visit our main article in this newsletter,
GEF Project to Support Cattle Rearing That Heals, Not Hurts.

You can also learn more on silvopastoral projects at the Plataforma Hispanoparlante of the Virtual Research and Development Centre, or visit the Global Environment Facility.