:FAO Rome, Dec.2nd, 2006 (WAM) -- The livestock sector generates more greenhouse gas emissions as measured in CO2 equivalent ? 18 percent ?than transport. It is also a major source of land and water degradation,according to a new report published by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Henning Steinfeld, Chief of FAO?s Livestock Information and PolicyBranch and senior author of the report says : ?Livestock are one of themost significant contributors to today?s most serious environmental problems. Urgent action is required to remedy the situation.? With increased prosperity, people are consuming more meat and dairyproducts every year. Global meat production is projected to more thandouble from 229 million tonnes in 1999/2001 to 465 million tonnes in 2050, while milk output is set to climb from 580 to 1043 million tonnes.

Long shadow The global livestock sector is growing faster than any other agriculturalsub-sector. It provides livelihoods to about 1.3 billion people and contributes about 40 percent to global agricultural output. For many poorfarmers in developing countries livestock are also a source of renewableenergy for draft and an essential source of organic fertilizer for theircrops.

But such rapid growth exacts a steep environmental price, accordingto the FAO report, Livestock?s Long Shadow ?Environmental Issues and Options.

?The environmental costs per unit of livestock production must becut by one half, just to avoid the level of damage worsening beyond itspresent level,? it warns.

When emissions from land use and land use change are included, thelivestock sector accounts for 9 percent of CO2 deriving from human-relatedactivities, but produces a much larger share of even more harmful greenhousegases. It generates 65 percent of human-related nitrous oxide, which has296 times the Global Warming Potential (GWP) of CO2. Most of this comesfrom manure.

And it accounts for respectively 37 percent of all human-induced methane(23 times as warming as CO2), which is largely produced by the digestivesystem of ruminants, and 64 percent of ammonia, which contributes significantly to acid rain.

Livestock now use 30 percent of the earth?s entire land surface, mostlypermanent pasture but also including 33 percent of the global arable landused to producing feed for livestock, the report notes. As forests arecleared to create new pastures, it is a major driver of deforestation,especially in Latin America where, for example, some 70 percent of formerforests in the Amazon have been turned over to grazing.

Land and water At the same time herds cause wide-scale land degradation, with about 20percent of pastures considered as degraded through overgrazing, compactionand erosion. This figure is even higher in the drylands where inappropriatepolicies and inadequate livestock management contribute to advancing desertification.

The livestock business is among the most damaging sectors to the earth?sincreasingly scarce water resources, contributing among other things towater pollution, euthropication and the degeneration of coral reefs. Themajor polluting agents are animal wastes, antibiotics and hormones, chemicalsfrom tanneries, fertilizers and the pesticides used to spray feed crops.

Widespread overgrazing disturbs water cycles, reducing replenishment ofabove and below ground water resources. Significant amounts of water arewithdrawn for the production of feed.

Livestock are estimated to be the main inland source of phosphorous andnitrogen contamination of the South China Sea, contributing to biodiversityloss in marine ecosystems.

Meat and dairy animals now account for about 20 percent of all terrestrialanimal biomass. Livestock?s presence in vast tracts of land and its demandfor feed crops also contribute to biodiversity loss, 15 out of 24 importantecosystem services are assessed as in decline, with livestock identifiedas a culprit.

Remedies The report, which was produced with the support of the multi-institutionalLivestock, Environment and Development (LEAD) Initiative, proposes explicitlyto consider these environmental costs and suggests a number of ways ofremedying the situation, including: Land degradation ? controlling access and removing obstacles to mobilityon common pastures. Use of soil conservation methods and silvopastoralism,together with controlled livestock exclusion from sensitive areas, paymentschemes for environmental services in livestock-based land use to helpreduce and reverse land degradation.

Atmosphere and climate ? increasing the efficiency of livestock productionand feed crop agriculture. Improving animals? diets to reduce entericfermentation and consequent methane emissions, and setting up biogas plantinitiatives to recycle manure.

Water ? improving the efficiency of irrigation systems. Introducing full-costpricing for water together with taxes to discourage large-scale livestockconcentration close to cities.

These and related questions are the focus of discussions between FAO andits partners meeting to chart the way forward for livestock productionat global consultations in Bangkok this week. These discussions also includethe substantial public health risks related to the rapid livestock sectorgrowth as, increasingly, animal diseases also affect humans, rapid livestocksector growth can also lead to the exclusion of smallholders from growingmarkets.