Trainers for Change: CATIE promotes sustainable livestock in Honduras

• A capacity-building program prepares local facilitators to scale up resilient practices in the livestock sector

CATIE (Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center), within the framework of the project Transforming the Honduran Livestock Sector toward a Low-Carbon Economy (MAF-Ganadería-HN), held the first facilitators’ workshop from August 4 to 8 in Comayagua, Honduras, with the goal of providing technical and methodological tools to strengthen field work and coordination with producers.

With intensive training in the following areas:

• Value chain analysis: understanding the structure, dynamics, and opportunities for technical, organizational, and commercial improvement of production systems.
• Territorial monitoring and MRV system: introduction to tools such as AppSheet and QGIS for the collection, digitization, and verification of field data.
• Participatory trials: establishment of demonstration plots of pastures adapted to local conditions.
• Communication strategy: strengthening capacities in interviews, audiovisual recording, identification of success stories, and communication of the project’s key messages.
• Financial mechanism: development of farm and investment plans, as well as sustainability criteria such as the “0% deforestation” agreement.

The workshop was led by CATIE specialists, who guided practical exercises that enabled the facilitators to acquire knowledge immediately applicable in their areas of intervention: Aguán, Olancho, and the Southern Zone.

Juan Carlos Flores, national coordinator of the MAF-Ganadería-HN project emphasized that “these spaces strengthen not only the technical capacities of the facilitators, but also their role as agents of change who promote low-carbon livestock practices that are resilient to climate change.”.

Likewise, the project’s communications specialist, Gina Puerto, underscored the importance of facilitators being able to convey the project’s message clearly and convincingly to different audiences, from producers to authorities and the media.

With this training session, CATIE supports Honduras in the transition toward a more competitive, sustainable livestock sector aligned with international commitments to climate change mitigation.