LEAP

The LEAP Partnership was founded in 2012 and involves stakeholders across the livestock sectors, all who share an interest in improving the environmental performance of livestock supply chains. The objective is to develop comprehensive guidance and methodology for understanding the environmental performance of livestock supply chains.

As part of the LEAP activities, there has been a new Technical Advisory Group on biodiversity, co-chaired by Dr John Finn of Teagasc. A novel element of this work is to include Life Cycle Assessment principles for biodiversity. This work will include:

• A literature review on biodiversity assessment approaches for livestock systems (Jan 2015)
• Principles to guide the assessment of biodiversity in global livestock systems (public consultation in March 2015)

A major outcome of this work is the identification of complementarity between the fast-developing area of Life Cycle Assessment for biodiversity, and the well-established Pressure-State-Response indicator framework for assessing environmental impact. We provide discussion of these different approaches and their application to livestock systems, with reference to specific examples of indicators, and with reference to several Case Studies presented as part of this work.

For further information, contact Dr John Finn john.finn(at)teagasc.ie