GHG mitigation and efficiency improvements for a sustainable sheep supply chain: the Sheep ToShip LIFE strategy

Sardinia (Italy), one of the main European regions for sheep milk production and where a broad variety of dairy sheep farming systems coexist, can represent a special context for testing strategies of climate change mitigation for the small ruminant sector. The SheepToShip LIFE - Looking for an eco-sustainable sheep supply chain is a EU project launched in 2016 to develop and implement an intervention model for the sheep-dairy supply chain of Sardinia, able to reduce GHG emissions by 20% over the next 10 years through eco-innovative actions. The core of SheepToShip LIFE strategy is the evaluation, with a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach, of the environmental impacts of the main Sardinian dairy sheep farming and manufacturing systems by using a case study methodology. The project’s goal seems technically feasible by increasing farm efficiency at both flock and field levels. However, the greening of the dairy sheep sector strongly depends on attractive agro-environmental measures (based on effective eco-innovation criteria) within the next Rural Development Plan