Venezuelan network for sustainable livestock production managed with silvopastoral systems

Abstract

This space provided updated and classic information on the meaning and potential of silvopastoral livestock systems, their advantages, disadvantages, requirements for their design, implementation, and productive and sustainable management. A significant number of forest species with local biodiversity and their characteristics, which can be part of these silvopastoral systems, are also presented, given the diversity of available biomes and the various implementation options. Regional results from tropical Latin America are presented on the performance of these livestock systems, their characteristics, and the diverse plant and animal species involved, with the potential for achieving profitable and sustainable production. A proposal is made for a Venezuelan network of sustainable livestock production managed with silvopastoral systems, with zoning of livestock species and purposes, with possible performances and productive potential, with simulated exercises of income and economic and financial performance with the geographical territorial, environmental biodiversity, organizational, productive, training and formative supports, management indicators in livestock systems with silvopastoral systems, as well as potential greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation scenarios of the Venezuelan network of sustainable livestock production managed with silvopastoral systems and current legal aspects and their implications that allow or favor its possible large-scale implementation as a feasible productive model. All of this aligned for the production of quality meat, milk, hides and/or fiber, safe, traceable, sustainable, carbon neutral or net GHG fixers and profitable for national and international markets. Concluding that it is feasible and that there are a variety of conditions for its development, provided that the technical, legal, training, organizational, and access to capital steps required for each situation are met.