Technical review role for The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Water working group

Summary

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) developed an initiative known as the 'Livestock Environmental Assessment and Performance' (LEAP) Partnership in 2012 with stakeholders across the livestock industries. The overarching objective is to develop comprehensive guidance and methodology for understanding the environmental performance of livestock supply chains. The overarching goal of this initiative is to "contribute to improved environmental performance of the livestock sector while considering social and economic viability". To achieve this, the FAO convened a number of Technical Advisory Groups (TAGs) to provide technical input into the development of methodologies for measuring environmental performance.  

This project was initiated to support development of the water footprint guidelines. Water has been an important issue for the Australian red meat industry for more than 10 years, and much of the problem surrounding this issue relates to incorrect assessment and reporting of water use from livestock. Hence, development of guidelines in this area is an important priority for the industry. On the water footprint TAG, the Australian industry is represented by Steve Wiedemann. The objectives of this project were to contribute to the development of the guideline via technical input, critique and provision of methodological approaches used in Australian research, to ensure a meaningful guideline is developed. These objectives are primarily to be met through participation in the technical advisory group meetings (face-to-face) and over the phone or internet, for the duration of the project. The present report provides a summary of the second technical meeting, held in Kigali, Rwanda, 14-18th November 2016 and attended by Steve Wiedemann.

Participation in the water TAG involved two technical meetings and contributions to the guideline document, which was in draft form at the completion of this final report. The guideline currently has provided new recommendations for the reporting and assessment of water use for livestock systems and improved assessment methods. These recommendations align well with MLA funded research in this area.