Livestock and climate

Africa’s drylands cover 60% of the continent and are home to around 525 million people, many of whom are pastoralists and agro-pastoralists that depend on these landscapes for food and nutrition security, as well as economic development [6]. Pastoralism alone supports an estimated 268 million people across 36 African states [7].

Yet this critical sector is particularly vulnerable to climate change impacts. Oxfam’s ‘unfair share’ report estimates that East Africa lost nearly 13 million livestock to prolonged drought and erratic rainfall between 2021 and 2023, at an estimated direct cost of USD 7.4 billion [8]. On the other hand, by the end of the century, production losses from heat stress alone are projected at between USD 14.89-39.94 billion per year, estimates a Lancet report [9]. Right now across Africa, climate-resilient Indigenous livestock breeds are disappearing as households increasingly sell their animals to slaughterhouses, both in normal seasons and during climate-related crises.

In the ACS2 summit declaration, a ‘Green Revolution’ approach to climate action—with its somewhat narrow and modernistic view of development and progress—was prominent. We hold, however, that Africa should not overlook the contribution of livestock—and the management practices that livestock keepers have been practising for millennia—to climate-resilient and sustainable livelihoods. These communities are managing climate-induced disasters on a daily basis through resilient, adaptive, and innovative practices—and have much to offer other land managers and decision makers as the climate crisis intensifies.

Camels, for instance—of which Africa has about 34 million [10]—are exceptionally adaptive to variable climatic conditions. They have longer lactation periods and significantly higher drought survival rate than other livestock, as well as notable value addition potential through milk, meat, hides and emerging products like milk powder, yoghurt and cosmetics.

To date, however, research on camel health, vaccines and disease control is still minimal to non-existent, and the potential of these animals has been severely overlooked in all of Africa’s climate talks. Climate finance should support cutting-edge camel research, the establishment of a continental centre of excellence, and strengthened capacity in existing research institutions and extension services.

Livestock, land, and biodiversity

Transhumance and mobile livestock husbandry have co-evolved with Africa’s dryland ecosystems over millennia. These sustainable systems ensure rangelands’ health and contribute to biodiversity conservation [11–13], drawing on silvo-pastoralism and adaptive grazing that allow for balanced ecosystem regeneration.

Yet the interconnections between livestock, land degradation, biodiversity, and climate were not given adequate space at ACS2—or at COP30, where World Animal Protection’s Kelly Dent noted that “big agribusiness won… while wildlife and farmed animals were reduced to commodities and excluded from any climate action.”

These omissions matter. The ‘Green Revolution’ approach that was emphasised in the ACS2 summit declaration risks undermining the small-scale livestock systems that depend on these landscapes for survival—and that are often indispensable to local rangeland health and biodiversity, too.

Climate actors can help to protect and improve these critical systems through better breeding, investing in livestock health, strengthening institutions with technology and innovation, and encouraging participatory rangelands management [14], which enables communities to effectively safeguard the environment, promote food security and enhance their livelihoods.

Reduce emissions intensities through productivity gains

Climate action for Africa’s livestock must focus on reducing emissions intensities by improving productivity—such as through investment and research into improved livestock feeds [15], health [4,16], community based breeding [17], and animal welfare—whilst keeping the significant contributions of the continent’s livestock to food security and global development goals at the forefront.

African leaders must champion brave conversations and shift livestock from occasional side-event content to recognition as actionable climate solutions, supported by equitable and just climate finance for resilient and transformative food systems.

Bundle and scale innovations

Existing innovations already demonstrate the potential for transformation to boost resilience, reduce emissions and improve productivity. For example, index-based livestock insurance (IBLI) programs, which serve to reduce the impact of droughts on pastoral households, have been successfully scaled across the Horn of Africa over the past 15 years [18]. The initiative grew from a single district in Kenya in 2010 to a regional program—De-Risking, Inclusion and Value Enhancement of Pastoral Economies (DRIVE)— covering Kenya, Djibouti, Somalia and Ethiopia in 2023. By mid-2025, DRIVE activities in Kenya alone had insured over 2.7 million livestock and issued more than 257,000 insurance policies delivering KSHs 4.5 (USD 34.8 million) in benefits [19]. However, such innovation should complement, rather than undermine the existing local systems of insurance [20] and collective solidarities, central to pastoralists livelihoods and resilience [21].

Initiatives like African Union Drought Watch and regional anticipatory action roadmaps, including IGAD, Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA) and the West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL), all represent significant steps towards climate resilience, for example through scaling climate resilient agriculture and climate-informed advisory services. Moving forward, however, these initiatives’ work must more explicitly integrate livestock systems, acknowledge and centre uncertainty rather than over-relying on technocratic fixes, and foreground productivity.

Africa-led food security can be advanced by improving livestock productivity through better management, supporting locally led anticipatory action, providing reliable climate information services and integrated drought management to reducing loss and damage from climate impacts. Climate finance is required to scale these ongoing innovations, link them to the most in need, and improve the institutional dynamics that influence the uptake of these innovations.

Bridge the evidence-action gap in sustainable livestock systems

Despite some solutions already reaching scale, there are still huge gaps in livestock research in Africa. We need more innovative applied research on climate-resilient livestock systems—including preserving indigenous breeds to support adaptation, improving animal health, feeds, and manure management. All of these activities require substantive investment: leveraging the AFSF summit declaration, actors must prioritize livestock within climate finance portfolios.

Institutional strengthening is equally important. Tools, innovations and policy insights from local, regional and international experts—including women, youth and indigenous peoples—must be widely disseminated. Platforms such as the Global Agenda for Sustainable Livestock(GASL), the Why Livestock Matter coalition, and Livestock Data for Decisions and others, offer valuable resources for application.

Livestock must also be mainstreamed when implementing climate policy instruments such as the Paris Agreement, the African Union (AU)’s Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) Strategy and its Agenda 2063. For aligning livestock priorities within African policy instruments, the African Union Inter-African Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR) is playing a key role by developing an African common position on sustainable livestock that will be a guiding light for policymakers and climate negotiators across the continent.

Centre livestock in climate action

The livestock sector must feature prominently in technical sessions, declarations, and implementation plans as a stand-alone issue, instead of being buried in general agriculture and climate adaptation discourse. Climate declarations often rely on broad, romanticised language—‘green transformation’, ‘climate resilience’—that overshadows the critical sectoral specific needs of Africa’s food security and economic growth. The language of climate action should not bury livestock systems, rather recognize livestock as some of Africa’s greatest treasures, which demand ongoing attention and serious investment.

Livestock must also be front of mind for financing: Africa’s livestock sector receives just 5–10% of agricultural investment [22]. Financial service providers can play a key role in facilitating a climate-resilient sector by investing in improving livestock breeding, disease control, extension services and climate information services—and by strengthening markets and value chains.