The FAO Livestock Environmental Assessment and Performance Partnership (LEAP) today announced at its 22nd Steering Committee meeting that Caroline Emond, Director General of the International Dairy Federation (IDF) will serve as its 2019 Chair. “We are very pleased that Caroline Emond will be the new Chair of LEAP, said Camillo De Camillis, manager of LEAP. “Her experience leading IDF and its global dairy expertise will be invaluable as LEAP continues its important work to assess the environmental performance of livestock supply chains while ensuring their economic and social viability.”

“I am delighted to serve as the new Chair of LEAP, a partnership that is doing so much to enhance sustainability throughout the entire livestock sector,” said Caroline Emond Director General of IDF. “We have already made great progress through LEAP on the benchmarking and monitoring of the environmental performance of the livestock sector and I look forward to achieving even more in 2019.” LEAP is a multi-stakeholder initiative made up of Governments, NGOs and members of the private sector, which is hosted by FAO.

It develops comprehensive guidance and methodology for monitoring the environmental performance of livestock supply chains. Since July 2012, the dairy sector, represented by IDF, has participated in LEAP and been a key player in its major sustainability initiatives. In particular, IDF played a large role in three LEAP initiatives: LEAP 1 was largely focused on the harmonization of accounting rules for the quantification of GHG emissions from livestock supply chains (feed, small ruminants, large ruminants, poultry, pig). LEAP 2 has been focused on the development of soil carbon stock changes guidelines, nutrient cycle guidelines, water foot printing guidelines, biodiversity guidelines and feed additives or change-oriented approached guidelines. LEAP 3 will focus on road testing LEAP guidelines and the development, revision and dissemination of these Guidelines. IDF is part of the Steering Committee of LEAP thanks to the generous support of IDF National Committees.