The New leadership of ILRI’s Mazingira Centre

The Mazingira Centre at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) has appointed Claudia Arndt as its new manager. With a PhD in dairy science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (USA), a MSc in livestock sciences from the Justus Liebig University of Giessen (Germany) and over a decade of experience in measuring and mitigating greenhouse gas emissions, Arndt is well-equipped to lead the centre's research initiatives and ensure seamless operation of its facilities.

At the heart of the Mazingira Centre's mission is a commitment to understanding the environmental impact of African livestock, particularly the production of methane and other greenhouse gases through digestion and manure. This groundbreaking research is playing a critical role in illuminating the contribution of these gases to global warming.

‘My ambition is to speed the transformation of the livestock sector into an industry that produces nourishing food in both profitable and sustainable ways.’

Claudia Arndt

Arndt, a dairy scientist and native of Germany, has a track record of helping develop sustainable livestock systems in California with the US non-profit Environmental Defense Fund, in Costa Rica with the International Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (Spanish acronym CATIE) and in Peru with the National Agrarian University La Molina. With her expertise, the Mazingira Centre is poised to continue making significant progress in its efforts to compare greenhouse gas emissions from African ruminant livestock with those raised in other regions and to maximize the efficiency of feed conversion into milk and meat.

In addition to this, the centre is collaborating with partners to examine the interplay between livestock production, food security, economic prosperity, and environmental sustainability in Africa. The centre's research is already making a valuable contribution to the global effort to combat climate change, with its first-ever Tier 2 assessment of greenhouse gas emissions from various livestock and dominant land-use types yielding significant results. The Mazingira Centre's work is also helping East African governments fulfill their commitments to reducing the impacts of climate change.

The Mazingira Centre consists of laboratories with state-of-the-art equipment that have the capacity to measure a set of environmental parameters including livestock system greenhouse gas emissions, hydrological parameters, soil, and plant nutrient contents as well as soil C sequestration. (Photo: ILRI/Dorine Odongo)

Banner photo: Claudia Arndt has contributed in work and collaborations to accelerate the transformation of the livestock sector towards profitable and sustainable production of animal-sourced protein in California, Costa Rica and Peru. (Photo provided by Claudia Arndt)