One Welfare: an innovative approach to resilient livestock farming

Contribute to the resilience of livestock systems, with a focus on "One Welfare", by implementing good practices for cattle and sheep based on animal welfare principles.

Context of the story

Sustainable livestock growth is a key challenge in Latin America and the Caribbean, given the increased demand for quality products, animal welfare, and sustainability. Argentina, Chile, and Colombia, major suppliers of meat, milk, and wool, face the impacts of climate change, which particularly affect small and medium-sized producers. This initiative promotes a comprehensive approach to “One Welfare”—animal, human, and environmental—integrating technical and traditional knowledge. Through Good Livestock Practices adapted to each region, it seeks to strengthen farm resilience, reduce losses, improve productivity, and move toward more sustainable and innovative livestock farming.

Strengthening the co-participatory capacity of livestock-raising communities to implement the GLP-AW and disseminate the results of their adoption.

The Implemented Initiative

The consolidated regional co-innovation platform now covers six ecoregions: from the highlands and eastern plains of Colombia, through the savannas of northeastern Argentina and Patagonia, to the valleys of central and southern Chile. Through co-participatory workshops, technicians, producers, Mapuche communities, cooperatives, universities, and institutions identified and prioritized Good Livestock Practices with a focus on Animal Welfare to adapt them to each reality. The goal is to weave local networks that generate sustainable solutions with territorial identity, cultural respect, and shared commitment.

Development and validation of processing technologies through a regional co-innovation platform, which promotes the adoption of Good Livestock Practices with a “One Welfare” approach to improve the resilience of livestock farms.

The technological solution

The project developed a regional methodology for the implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of Good Livestock Practices with a focus on Animal Welfare (GLPs-AW), based on the One Welfare conceptual framework. This solution integrates animal welfare indicators, socioeconomic variables, and environmental criteria in a participatory manner, enabling a comprehensive approach to the sustainability and resilience of livestock systems.

The methodology combines territorial co-innovation tools, harmonized evaluation protocols, digital forms for data collection, and a set of regionally prioritized and validated indicators for cattle and sheep systems. It also incorporates training and technical support processes aimed at facilitating the adoption of these practices by producers and implementation teams.

The proposal was designed to be applicable in different production contexts across Latin America, facilitating the monitoring of results across ecoregions and the generation of evidence for decision-making. It is currently being implemented and validated in pilot sites in Argentina, Chile, and Colombia, contributing to the simultaneous improvement of animal welfare, environmental management, and the socioeconomic sustainability of livestock farms.

"Capacity development is essential for improving animal welfare in practice, enabling farmers and communities to enhance productivity, reduce stress and disease, and improve livelihoods."

— Food and agriculture organization of the united nations (FAO, 2009)

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Type of project

Agronomic Practices

Strategy 1. Resilient farms

Applied

Technological

Cattle raising

Productive systems

Results

The project successfully established a regional co-innovation platform that brings together producers, technical experts, researchers, and institutions from Argentina, Chile, and Colombia to promote the adoption of Good Livestock Practices with a focus on animal welfare. As a result, ten practices adapted to six ecoregions were identified and prioritized; a common monitoring methodology was developed under the “One Welfare” approach; and indicators were harmonized to evaluate productive, environmental, and socioeconomic dimensions.

Likewise, the capacities of more than 200 stakeholders were strengthened through regional workshops, courses, and seminars, creating a network of trained implementers to support innovation processes in the field. Concurrently, a network of 21 (twenty-one) pilot sites was established across Argentina (12), Colombia (8), and Chile (1), aimed at the participatory validation of the prioritized practices. In the initial phase, comprehensive diagnostic and monitoring processes were launched at selected farms, enabling the establishment of baselines and the adaptation of methodological tools to the production and territorial conditions of each ecoregion.

These advances have provided concrete tools for decision-making, strengthened local capacities, and laid the groundwork for the future validation of Good Livestock Practices with an Animal Welfare focus, contributing to improving the resilience and sustainability of the region’s livestock systems.

Co-innovative regional platform

Dissemination workshops

Demonstrative and Experimental Units (DEUs) identified

Ecoregions identified

Technical notes

700

Direct and indirect beneficiaries mobilizing

Teams of advisors in training

Good Livestock Practices

Through a regional network and 21 pilot sites, producers, technicians, and researchers are generating evidence to support more sustainable livestock farming in Latin America.