Title: Greenhouse gas emissions of livestock raised in a harsh environment

Authors: Flavio Forabosco; Federico Antonio Canu; Roberto Mantovani

Addresses: Department of Private Husbandry, Armenian National Agrarian University, 74, Teryan, 0009, Yerevan, Armenia ' UNEP DTU Partnership, UN City, Marmorvej 51, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark ' Department of Agronomy, Food, Natural Resources, Animals and the Environment, University of Padova, Agripolis 35020 Legnaro, Italy

Abstract: Domestic animals are large emitters of greenhouse gases (GHGs), and developing countries raise a large number of those animals. Livestock can be divided into local and improved animals. Local animals are usually not well characterised and seldom subject to structured breeding programs but well adapted to local environmental conditions while improved animals are characterised by high productions but limited capacity to adapt to extreme conditions. Analysis conducted with the use of ex-ante carbon-balance tool software indicated that the use of local livestock reduces the GHG emissions. Local dairy cattle emitted 1.54 kg CO₂-eq/kg of milk and improved dairy cattle emitted 2.63 kg CO₂-eq/kg of milk. Local livestock in extreme climate conditions can perform better than improved livestock and, because of their lower GHG emissions, they can contribute to mitigating climate. Overall, the findings support the existing literature on preserving local genetic resources due to their important role for future generations.

Keywords: greenhouse gas emissions; mitigation; local livestock; improved livestock; cattle; small ruminants; pigs; chicken; climate change; biodiversity conservation; Armenia; Asia; environment; global warming.

DOI: 10.1504/IJGW.2018.093748

International Journal of Global Warming, 2018 Vol.15 No.4, pp.431 - 446

Received: 22 Oct 2016
Accepted: 17 Jul 2017
Published online: 03 Aug 2018 *

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