Linking LEDS and NAMA in the Livestock Sector
According to Costa Rica’s last national greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory (2010), the livestock sector is the second largest emitting source, being responsible for 23.6% of national GHG emissions.
To support creating a more eco-competitive livestock sector, Costa Rica is implementing three closely-related initiatives in parallel in an integrated process to improve coherence and synergy. These are the National Strategy for Low Carbon Livestock, a Livestock NAMA, and its NAMA pilot plan for implementation. These initiatives, led by the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, are carried out in a participative process with active involvement of private sector representatives. The strategy serves as an umbrella, giving political orientation to the sector. The NAMA provides operationalisation guidelines that are being implemented through a pilot plan.
Coherence: The fact that all three initiatives were incorporated into an integrated process allowed for coherence and synergy. The Livestock LEDS provides a long-term vision (20 years), undertakes an in-depth analysis of the sector and sets the conditions, while the NAMA develops the activities at a technical level. The pilot plan, aimed at livestock enhancement, has been aligned to the low carbon efforts that promote the implementation exercises on the ground.
Ownership and stability: An institutional setup that allowed for participation in the development process of the initiatives created strong ownership among the key stakeholders involved. This further ensured the stability of the process which survived several political disruptions, such as a threefold change of the vice minister and one governmental change.
Mitigation: The implementation of the NAMA is expected to achieve a reduction of 6 MtCO 2 e in a 15-year period, mainly through the adoption of technologies and processes that lead to increased efficiency in the digestion process that breaks down livestock feed. The measure is expected to reach at least 70% of the herd and 60% of the area devoted to livestock farming in Costa Rica. Key technologies and processes suggested include: plantation of hedges in pasture areas; rational grazing or herd rotation; pasture improvements to improve nutrition for livestock; and improved fertilisation plans. These components will be complemented with a migration towards renewable energy sources and more efficient cooling systems at the processing level. The integration with the broader strategy makes the implementation feasible.
Co-benefits: Following a Climate Smart Agriculture approach, the implementation of the NAMA is expected to provide co-benefits such as soil conservation and land restoration as a result of improvement and rotation of pastures; ecosystem services such as protection of water sources, protection of biodiversity and landscape improvement; and increased profitability as a result of increased productivity of economic activity and improvement of employment opportunities in rural areas.
The key institutions involved are:
- Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Farming (MAG): Livestock Directorate: in charge of leading and coordinating all three initiatives
- Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE): Climate Change Directorate: gives orientation on climate change issues and support in UNFCCC processes (i.e. COP, NAMA Registry)
Other relevant actors:
- Livestock Corporation (CORFOGA)
- National Chamber of Milk Producers (CNPL)
- Tropical Agricultural Research and Education Centre (CATIE)
- International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT)
- National Institute of Agricultural Technology Innovation and Trasfer (INTA)