The Livestock Sector in Colombia: Toward a Program to Facilitate Large-Scale Adoption of Mitigation and Adaptation Practices

Abstract

Livestock raising is an important sector of the Colombian economy, which will face serious challenges in the next decade, including adaptation to and mitigation of climate change. Colombia must change the model of livestock production in a very short time by freeing up areas of pasture for other uses and focusing intensified livestock production in suitable zones. Despite the urgency and the magnitude of the required changes, only isolated small-scale initiatives exist. Colombia therefore has the challenge to scale-up these initiatives 1 , but at present it has no program designed to achieve this objective. We started by analyzing the policies, actors, and existing initiatives in Colombia. We then sought to understand the potential for and the limitations to scaling-up promising initiatives to face the challenges of climate change in the livestock sector. We identified the key elements from previous initiatives and classified them into the conceptual spaces identified in the theory of scaling-up. These are the spaces in matters of: policy, fiscal and financial matters, institutional capacity, learning, partnerships, and technical matters, emphasizing the importance of the technical dimension. Finally, we propose some elements for the design of Colombia's national program of livestock raising.

The Extent and Economic Significance of Cultivated Forage Crops in Developing Countries

“…To both reap the large economic (and environmental) benefits from technological progress and protect against real environmental risks, policy makers may be able to offer farmers and ranchers improved technologies in return for accepting other policies that limit their ability to expand their pastures into ecologically sensitive areas (Angelsen and Kaimowitz, 2001). Public-private efforts in that regard have in fact been initiated in many Latin American countries, such as the Tropical Forest Alliance (TFA) (MADS, 2019), the Colombian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef and Dairy (MGS-COL) (Tapasco et al, 2019), and the Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMA)-which are active in several countries including Costa Rica and Colombia. These efforts generally use market incentives (through certification) to support adoption of sustainable technologies that include limits on deforestation.…”

The risk of unintended deforestation from scaling sustainable livestock production systems

“…SPS integrate trees, forages and intensive livestock production within the same unit area of land (Calle et al, 2013). Even though SPS have proven to be economically, socially, and environmentally beneficial at the farm level, adoption remains low in Colombia and elsewhere (Tapasco, Fraçois LeCoq, Ruden, Sebasti an Rivas, & Ortiz, 2019).…”

Carbon Storage Potential of Silvopastoral Systems of Colombia

“…In spite of the growing international demand for carbon-efficient and environmentally friendly animal products [16], very few producers will plant trees in grasslands just for the sake of climate change mitigation [40]. However, awareness of the implications of land use decisions and the increased productivity and resiliency of SPS over conventional systems, in conjunction with adequate technical and policy support [15], has been shown to incentivize adoption [41].…”

“…Given that both the Colombian government and independent researchers have identified SPS as a priority in achieving Colombia's agricultural emission reduction goals [15], we focused on Colombia as a case study. As of 2015, Colombia had more than 12 million ha of grassland (13% of the national land area) scattered throughout tropical moist deciduous forests (77% of grassland), tropical rainforest (12%), and other ecofloristic zones ( Figure 1).…”