Methodological guides

Joanna Litt (ITAVI), Guillaume Coutelet (ITAVI), Laurence Fortun-Lamothe (INRAE)

These guides have been designed to make the method explicit to potential users, especially producers, so that they can take ownership of it and assess themselves.

DIAMOND is a multi-criteria assessment tool for the sustainability of foie gras and rabbit production facilities. It is based on a grid of sustainability objectives and a set of indicators to evaluate the response to these objectives. These objectives and indicators were defined by experts, professionals, representatives of citizens and consumers, as part of a participatory process.

The indicators

The indicators, measured at the scale of a workshop, are used to assess its economic, social and environmental performance.
The interest for the producer is :

  • better understand the issues and dimensions of sustainable development and the principles of sustainability assessment
  • to situate one's workshop in relation to other similar workshops and to compare one's results with the reference group
  • take a step back from its production tool
  • identify, for his particular case, the possible margins of progress and define improvement objectives (without however prejudging the actions to be taken)
  • communicate

The application of the tool within the networks of reference farms has made it possible to validate the method but also to draw up an initial inventory of the average sustainability performances on a national scale for these two sectors. These are used to highlight the progress margins of these production systems with regard to sustainability issues and to identify the technical choices and/or combinations of practices that best meet these issues.

Strengths and limitations

DIAMOND is an evaluation method based on a grid of objectives for livestock workshops that is potentially generic to all animal sectors. However, the indicators used are specific to each sector.
Its strong points are the diversity of the criteria used, which gives a very global view of the situation without forgetting any key points, the possibility of self-evaluation for the producer and the fact that it is free for the user. However, the tool is not intended for comparison between sectors.
DIAMOND is not a certification tool, nor is it intended to become one. However, it does allow for a sustainability diagnosis, the identification of strengths and weaknesses, and the regular monitoring of performance.

 

Download the guide :

 Methodological guide Rabbits 

Methodological guide Palmipeds