Just after the World Pastoralist Assembly, we headed to the UNCCD COP to make sure pastoralists’ voices were heard. Building on the outcomes of our WPA, we brought four key demands to COP17:
🌱 Protect pastoralists’ collective rights to land, territories, mobility and security.
🌱 Recognise pastoralist territories and governance systems.
🌱 Put pastoralists (especially women and youth) at the centre of decision-making on restoration, conservation and rangeland governance, recognising their traditional knowledge.
🌱 Reframe LDN around pastoralists’ rights, moving beyond offsetting schemes towards a systemic approach that recognises the social, cultural, political and economic dimensions of healthy rangelands.
There is no restoration without rights, no rangeland health without pastoralist leadership and no climate justice while our territories keep being sacrificed to offsetting schemes.
WAMIP will keep pushing until we pastoralists decide our own future!