MAF-Livestock-HN Project and ICADE Field-Test Tools to Strengthen Sustainable Livestock Production in Honduras

• The initiative advances the development of technical guidelines for Sustainable Livestock Production Systems, promoting responsible practices and expanding market opportunities across the country.

Building a more sustainable livestock sector requires practical tools that enable producers to identify opportunities for improvement, measure their progress, and strengthen their access to markets that value responsible production. With this objective, the Transforming the Honduran Livestock Sector toward a Low-Carbon Economy (MAF-Livestock-HN) project, implemented by CATIE (Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center) and funded by the Mitigation Action Facility, in collaboration with the Institute for Cooperation and Self-Development (ICADE), conducted a training and field validation workshop for a checklist and an implementation guide for the future Standard for Sustainable Livestock Production Systems (beef and dairy). These tools will serve as the foundation for strengthening sustainable livestock production in Honduras.

The activity brought together project facilitators to apply, for the first time under real production conditions, the checklist designed to assess compliance with the criteria and indicators established in the guidance document. This field validation generated valuable information to strengthen the tool and continue advancing actions related to future differentiation and/or certification processes for Honduras' livestock sector.

As part of the market development strategy of the MAF-Livestock-HN project, the initiative seeks to promote responsible practices in beef and dairy production that may eventually be recognized by the livestock industry and/or the national market.

Over the past several months, ICADE has led the development of the methodological tools supporting this process, including the evaluation checklist and the implementation guide.

Before moving forward to the next stages, ICADE and CATIE considered it essential to validate these instruments directly on livestock farms to verify their applicability and identify any necessary improvements.

The workshop was held at the facilities of the San Marcos de Colón Livestock Producers Association in Choluteca, Honduras. During the morning session, participants reviewed the methodological guide, followed by practical field exercises at Rancho El Corral, owned by Julio César Ordóñez, and at the farm of Dr. Vilma Ordóñez.

Among the main outcomes of the workshop were:

• Field validation of the checklist used to assess compliance with the proposed criteria and indicators.
• Strengthening the technical capacities of project facilitators to apply and interpret the proposed requirements.
• Identification of strengths and opportunities for improvement in criteria and indicators requiring greater clarity.
• Preparation of compliance analyses by chapter for the farms evaluated.
• Development of practical exercises to support the formulation of continuous improvement plans for livestock production systems.
• Identification of the need to develop complementary tools, including an interpretation guide, general regulations for a future standard, guidelines for addressing non-conformities, and recommendations for future certification processes.
• Incorporation of new perspectives related to sustainability, biodiversity, zero deforestation, environmental co-benefits, and other emerging criteria of interest to national and international markets.

Odalis Martínez, Livestock Markets and Value Chains Specialist for the MAF-Livestock-HN project, highlighted the importance of the process: "Applying the checklist on livestock farms provided practical evidence of the functionality of the proposed criteria and indicators, helped identify the adjustments needed, and generated valuable input to continue strengthening this process. This exercise represents an important milestone within a broader development plan that will continue incorporating new elements related to sustainability, biodiversity, and other strategic priorities for the livestock sector, based on the country's and the sector's needs," Martínez said.

The participating facilitators also noted that the experience helped them better understand the relationship between the proposed technical criteria and the real conditions of livestock production systems, strengthening their capacities for future implementation processes and technical assistance to producers.

Although this process is still being strengthened, the results obtained represent an important step toward developing robust, practical tools adapted to the realities of Honduras' livestock sector. Over the coming months, the MAF-Livestock-HN project and ICADE will continue refining these technical instruments, incorporating new sustainability perspectives, and promoting strategic partnerships that contribute to the development of differentiation and/or recognition mechanisms for a more competitive, resilient, and low-emission livestock sector.