Exhibition Livestock and Climate
Photographic exhibition : small scale livestock farming and climate change
From February 2011, AVSF is leading a European program of advocacy to increase awareness about small scale livestock farming[1] issues in view of climate change. This campaign will late 3 years and is financed by the European Commission. We count on the collaboration of VSF Europa and its partners (like VSF Norway and VSF Czech). The objective aims at making small scale livestock farming recognised as a key in sustainable development, as a tool for adaptation and mitigation in front of the climate change, for struggle against hunger and for social and economic development in developing countries.
One of the tools we are using for this campaign is a photo exhibition which presents strategies of adaptation and mitigation of small-scale livestock farmers in 4 developing countries: Madagascar, Senegal, Iran and Soudan. Over photos and text, we understand that small scale livestock farming has always been in the heart of resilience systems of the most vulnerable populations. At the same time, it plays a role in alimentation, energy provider by the labor force of animals and transport, micro finance for the poorest, maintaining biodiversity and landscapes. Livestock is inseparable from smallholders farming, both innovative and sustainable, which respect the environment
However, livestock is one of the most important sectors related to the emissions of greenhouse gases (18% of global emissions, including deforestation). The photo exhibition allows understanding the potential of small-scale livestock farming to face climate change. Indeed, small-scale livestock keepers are developing traditional and recent practices in order to mitigate those emissions, and most of all in order to adapt to unsettled and extremes climatic conditions.
At the moment, the exhibition is presenting AVSF’s photos on practices of small-scale livestock keepers in Madagascar and Senegal. It will be completed at the beginning of 2012 by photos and comments on Soudan and Iran, from our european partners.
[1] Small Scale Livestock Farming : farming systems typified by small scale integrated agriculture, mostly rural but sometimes peri- urban, run by a family for their livelihood. It includes also mobile livestock keepers, pastoralists and extensive herding systems.
