National Sustainable Livestock Platform of Honduras initiates the path towards the development of a National Action Plan for Bovine Livestock

• In this process CATIE provides effective collaboration for the design of this plan

December 19, 2023. In order to collaboratively build the roadmap for livestock in the coming years, the National Platform for Sustainable Livestock (PNGS) met this December 13 in the framework of a workshop that sought to lay the foundations for the design of the National Action Plan for Cattle Livestock in Honduras.

The methodology and facilitation of the event was developed by CATIE (Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center) through Ileana Ávalos, an expert in governance and decision making of the Livestock and Environmental Management Unit (GAMMA). Minister Laura Suazo, from the Secretariat of Agriculture and Livestock (SAG), participated in the meeting and emphasized the importance of having a policy instrument of this nature to coordinate the institutional efforts of the strategic stakeholders of the country's livestock sector.

In her remarks, the Minister pointed out the link between this exercise and the State Policy for the Agrifood Sector, which will be officially launched in the next few days and which includes important actions in the livestock sector.

His words were echoed by the Vice Minister of Livestock, Ángel Acosta, who emphasized the commitment of the Honduran government to promote participatory construction processes, such as the one initiated during the workshop.

The workshop made it possible to identify and prioritize the main challenges facing the country's cattle industry, as well as to identify the impact, results and products that the PNGS collective believes should underpin the design of the plan.

This workshop will be followed by a series of technical working events during the first four months of 2024 that are expected to culminate in the implementation of this collaborative construction instrument.

Support for this process is part of the technical cooperation actions under the project Transforming the Honduran livestock sector into a low-carbon economy (MAF-Ganadería-HN), which seeks to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and maximize carbon sequestration, while improving the sector's competitiveness, thus aligning with the objectives of Honduras' Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Within the framework of the project, PNGS plays a fundamental role as a multi-stakeholder space for the development of strategies to strengthen cattle ranching in Honduras, promoting sustainability and the active participation of the different stakeholders involved.