The LEAD (Livestock, Environment And Development) Initiative is an inter-institutional project with the secretariat in FAO. This initiative is supported by the World Bank, the European Union (EU), the Ministère des Affaires Etrangères (France), German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development via GTZ (Germany), the Department for International Development (United Kingdom), the US Agency for International Development (USA), the International Development Agency (Denmark), the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (Switzerland), and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

The work of the Initiative targets at the protection and enhancement of natural resources as affected by livestock production while alleviating poverty. Earlier work of LEAD has identified, at a global scale, the consequences of increased pressure on grazing and mixed farming systems and the dangers of the shift to industrial modes of production. It has highlighted the close and complex interaction between government policies and the environmental impact of livestock production, and identified a large number of technologies which are available to mitigate the negative effects in all different production modes, provided the appropriate policy framework is in place. Subsequently, the initiative mobilized funding for critical follow-up needs.

In particular:

• to improve communication and enhance the relevance of research and development issues regarding livestock-environment interactions, by establishing the Virtual Centre for Research and Development in Livestock Environment Interaction. The Virtual Centre promotes multidisciplinary research and development activities and increases awareness among key stakeholders of the complex interactions of human needs, animal production and the sustainability of global natural resources. The Virtual Centre operates both globally (based at FAO, Rome) and through French and Spanish speaking language platform, hosted by partner institutions(CIRAD and CATIE, respectively). In addition, further studies are being launched to fill the gaps in current knowledge of livestock-environment interactions, most notably in the areas of the use of fossil fuel in the different production systems, and the social consequences of the ongoing transformation of the livestock sector and associated resource degradation;

• to conduct a series of pilot research and development projects in key areas of livestock-environment interactions, most notably in livestock-wildlife integration, livestock-associated deforestation and the establishment of area-wide integration of specialized crop and livestock activities;

• to develop specific tools to facilitate decision-making on livestock-environment issues, designed to adapt general principles of improved management of livestock environment interactions to the special regional needs and conditions;

• to facilitate the policy dialogue at country level and to provide assistance in policy formulation and incorporating novel concepts at various decision-making levels for the “mainstreaming” of livestock-environment issues within the context of overall economic and social development.

The LEAD Initiative has implemented the project 'Decision Support on Livestock and Environment Issues' to provide decision-support on maximising positive and minimising negative interactions of livestock and environment. The project’s main goals are to increase awareness, knowledge and understanding of livestock and environment interactions; to identify appropriate options for livestock and environment management at regional and national level and to convey livestock and environment concepts into government and donor policies and projects.