Production of food or obtaining an income is not always the primary function of livestock keeping. Other functions like nature conservation, recreation, and keeping animals as pets become more and more important nowadays. In smallholder farming systems livestock has always had versatile roles in supporting human welfare.

Our research is organised along three themes:

• Assessment of sustainability:
  The emphasis of this theme is directed at comparison and development of methods to assess the contribution of animal production systems tot sustainable development, based on the combined economic, ecological and societal performances of these systems
• Multifunctional animal use:
  The hypothesis from which we approach this theme is that present day animal systems imply other values than only the production of low cost and high quality food. These are related to nature, landscape or social functions and are relatively invisible but latently present in animal systems. Study of demand and supply of such non-food values is done to define issues, and subsequently develop indicators and methods to value socio-cultural sustainability
• Livestock and livelihoods:
  Research projects in this theme aim to analyse and explore the role and functions of livestock in farming systems and to assess the contribution of livestock to sustainable livelihood options

The different themes share with each other the quest for methodologies for sustainability assessments and the focus on values of animal systems within societies.