Evaluation of "Promotion of climate-smart livestock management integrating reversion of land degradation and reduction of desertification risks in vulnerable provinces"

In Ecuador, the livestock sector is essential for food security. It is also an important source of employment and income in provinces with a large presence of small and medium-scale farmers. From May 2020 to October 2020, FAO implemented the project to “reduce soil degradation, and mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the livestock sector of Ecuador”. The project was implemented seven provinces, distributed in three geographic regions of the country (coastal Ecuador, the Andes and Amazon).

The project had an impact on public policies, with the incorporation of climate-smart livestock farming as one of the lines of action for the agricultural sector. In terms of technical aspects, the preparation of online tools to monitor GHG emissions and to calculate climate risk and the adaptation capacity of the sector is noteworthy. One void shown in the project, throughout the consultation process with interested parties, was the lack of connections to the market and the private sector. This was not contemplated in the project design and arose as a recurring issue during the implementation.