International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists (IYRP) History, Process, Priority Themes and Way Forward

The road towards the declaration of an IYRP by the United Nations has been long and rocky, perhaps mirroring the relative lack of understanding by some governments of the importance of rangelands and pastoralists for a sustainable world, compared to the focus on other sectors such as forest or cropland sustainability. The idea was first discussed at the International Rangeland (IRC) and Grassland (IGC) Congress held in Hohhot, China in 2008. The creation of an International Support Group (ISG) in 2015 helped to provide a stronger rational and the integration of social dimensions. This has led to a growing partnership of national, regional, and international organizations. Numerous events were conducted at international meetings between 2015 and 2021 to solicit support for an IYRP. In 2018, UN Environment published a Gap Analysis of knowledge about rangelands and pastoralism that helped to further highlight the significant neglect of these issues in both academic and development circles. Under the leadership of the Government of Mongolia, the proposal for designation of an IYRP was officially presented in 2019 to the Committee on Agricultural Secretariat of FAO. This historical background provides instructive lessons on how global perceptions can change through strong partnerships. In anticipation of obtaining this designation a comprehensive list of monthly themes has been developed by the ISG to guide countries on outreach and educational activates to take place prior to and during the IYRP. This guidance provides a vision of multi-disciplinary and multi-stakeholder approaches towards integrating the social, economic, environmental and political aspects of sustainability in rangelands and pastoralism. At this Congress resolutions will be submitted to the IRC and IGC for delegate support of this overall effort, including recommendations for Continuing Committee members of both the IRC and IGC along with the ISG to assist individual countries in developing IYRP-related programs

Priority Themes and Issues for the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists

The objective of the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralism (IYRP) is to increase world-wide awareness and recognition of the value and contributions of rangelands and pastoralists. The aim is to influence country policies, legislation, and programs; and to encourage development, research, extension and educational initiatives that will lead to sustainability of rangelands and pastoral/livestock systems. Although each country should decide on how they would celebrate the IYRP, the adoption of a global framework of 12 monthly themes will help to a) provide suggestions and ideas, b) highlight urgent and topical issues, and c) show how pastoralism and rangelands across the globe share similar issues and concerns. This paper proposes major themes, such as: including securing access to rangelands by pastoralists; services for pastoralists; climate change; biodiversity and ecosystems services; water use; sustainable consumptions of livestock products; indigenous knowledge and culture; women, youth and innovative technologies. These define the global priority issues in the social, economic, environmental, and governance nexus

Global actions for Sustainable Rangelands and Pastoralism to achieve Land Degradation Neutrality

This presentation focuses on the global actions required to achieve Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) through sustainable rangelands and pastoralism, aligning with the International Year for Rangelands and Pastoralists (IYRP) and its sub-working group on LDN. The challenges and threats to rangelands are outlined, emphasizing the climatic and anthropogenic pressures leading to natural resource degradation, productivity losses, and land-related conflicts. Notably, the presentation highlights the global average rate of rangeland degradation, conversion to croplands, and the various drivers contributing to this phenomenon. Addressing these challenges, the presentation introduces actions proposed by the IYRP International Support Group. These include urging the UNCCD COP to halt indiscriminate rangeland conversion, increase investment in nature-based restoration, and elevate LDN targets with specific commitments to rangeland restoration and sustainable pastoralism. Additionally, the group calls on UNCCD Member States, donors, civil society, and other parties to recognize the mobility of livestock through pastoralism as a viable solution, revise detrimental economic policies, and adopt integrated policies that acknowledge the multifunctionality of land. In conclusion, the presentation emphasizes the importance of committing to LDN through sustainable rangelands management and pastoralism. It contends that such commitment addresses food security, climate change, economic development, livelihoods, and human well-being. The proposed actions by the IYRP International Support Group aim to encourage policy dialogues, improve the enabling environment of rangelands, support pastoralism, strengthen policies for LDN and land restoration investments, learn from successful models in dryland areas, and advocate for increased investments in sustainable development and rangeland restoration

Rangelands and Pastoralism of the Middle-East and North Africa, from Reality to Dream

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is a vast area covering 20 countries from western Asia to North Africa, with nearly 9,000,000 Km2 and 303 million hectares of total rangelands. Rangelands play an essential role in supporting people\u27s livelihoods and food security. Mobile pastoralism is the most viable and resilient form of production and land use in the fragile drylands of MENA. The region\u27s governments have considered mobile pastoralism as backwards mainly because it was difficult to deliver mobile services to them. They designed various policies that were not in harmony with pastoralists\u27 customary rules and norms and severely weakened their mutual aid associations and governance systems for natural resources management. Nowadays, pastoralists\u27 rangelands and customary territories are shrinking, fragmenting, and degrading due to various reasons, but mainly the expansion of agricultural or industrial needs. Based on pastoralists and rangelands\u27 socio-ecological values, the world needs to apply the evidence-based experiences and Indigenous knowledge of pastoralists in preventing rangeland degradation. It is urgent to start a new era for a paradigm-shift for an inclusive interaction, establishing pro-poor livestock policies. These polices would address the barriers and bottlenecks faced by pastoral and agro-pastoral communities, and secure land tenure at community and landscape levels through multi-stakeholder dialogue, including during the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists (IYRP). It is time to call for respect of customary governance systems of pastoralists, recognition of their territories as Indigenous and Community Conserved Areas (ICCA1s—territories of life) under various and norms in the region like Qoroq, Hima, Agdal, and any other form of local conservation to prevent fragmentation of pastoralists territories and rangelands degradation leading to desertification

Grasslands, Rangelands, Pastoralists – What Do We Mean?

The terms grasslands and rangelands are often confused, but the terms used to describe the people who live and manage these areas are even more confusing. The myriad of words used about these people includes: pastoralists, farmers, ranchers, herders, transhumants, indigenous peoples, nomads, graziers, gauchos. The terms used vary across the world, and meanings vary across time and space. One definition of pastoralists is “livestock-keepers who specialise in taking advantage of variability, managing grazing itineraries at a variety of scales so that livestock feed better than without a herder” (Krätli 2019). The United Nations Decade of Family Farming defines farmers as “people who own or operate an agricultural enterprise, either commercially or to sustain their families”. “Family farmers” include peasants, indigenous peoples, traditional communities, fisherfolk, mountain farmers, forest users and pastoralists (FAO & IFAD 2019). Excellent glossaries on rangelands and grasslands have been developed by the Society for Range Management (SRM), the International Grassland Congress (IGC) and the International Rangeland Congress (IRC). More recently, another group of scientists developed a complementary glossary of socio-institutional and political terms, the “people” terms. This glossary includes terms for the people who live and manage rangelands, including pastoralists, farmers, ranchers and many others. Also included are terms about the mobility of animals and people, e.g. transhumance, as well as land tenure, property and ownership, land rights, changes in rights to land, and land management and governance. This glossary has a Western focus, even though definitions take terms from various parts of the world into consideration. At this stage, terms are defined only in English, but it is hoped that they will be translated into other languages, and also that more terms will be added that are specific to certain regions of the world

Regenerative grazing for climate, ecosystem, and human health

The brief is about the case study of two transformative land regeneration approaches developed in Africa: agroforestry and regenerative grazing management. These two approaches come together in silvopastoral systems - livestock grazing and browsing in tree-dotted grasslands - which have been ranked among the most effective carbon drawdown tools at our disposal. This was presented in COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt venue

Rangelands and pastoralism of the Middle-East and North Africa, from reality to dream

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is a vast area covering 20 countries from western Asia to North Africa, with nearly 9,000,000 Km2 and 303 million hectares of total rangelands. Rangelands play an essential role in supporting people’s livelihoods and food security. Mobile pastoralism is the most viable and resilient form of production and land use in the fragile drylands of MENA. However, the region’s governments have considered nomadic pastoralism backwards mainly because it was challenging to deliver mobile services. They designed various policies that were not in harmony with pastoralists’ customary rules and norms and severely weakened their mutual aid associations and governance systems for natural resources management. Nowadays, pastoralists’ rangelands and customary territories are shrinking, fragmenting, and degrading due to various reasons, but mainly the expansion of agricultural or industrial needs. Based on pastoralists and rangelands’ socio-ecological values, the world needs to apply the evidence-based experiences and Indigenous knowledge of pastoralists in preventing rangeland degradation. It is urgent to start a new paradigm shift for an inclusive interaction, establishing pro-poor livestock policies. These policies would address the barriers and bottlenecks faced by pastoral and agro-pastoral communities and secure land tenure at community and landscape levels through multi-stakeholder dialogue, including during the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists (IYRP). It is time to call for respect of customary governance systems of pastoralists, recognition of their territories as Indigenous and Community Conserved Areas (ICCA3s—territories of life) under various and norms in the region like Qoroq, Hima, Agdal, and any other form of local conservation to prevent fragmentation of pastoralists territories and rangelands degradation leading to desertification