New report pushes investors to back rangelands and pastoralists

A new global report launched at UNCCD COP17 in Mongolia argues that rangelands are a major climate, biodiversity and economic asset worth up to $47 trillion a year. The report calls for more public and private investment in sustainable management, restoration and the 500 million pastoralists who steward these landscapes.

Why it matters: - Rangelands cover more than half of the planet’s land surface and hold a third of its key biodiversity areas. - The report estimates rangelands generate benefits worth $21 trillion to $47 trillion a year, or up to $5,000 per hectare. - The findings argue that governments and investors are overlooking one of the world’s biggest natural assets. - The report says 500 million pastoralists sustain these landscapes and should be recognized as frontline stewards, not treated as a problem.

What happened: - A new report, Rangelands Rising: Investing in Sustainable Management and Restoration, was launched at COP17 of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. - The report was published by the International Livestock Research Institute, GIZ, the Economics of Land Degradation Initiative, UNCCD and the International Union for Conservation of Nature. - The launch took place during the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists. - The report argues that mobile livestock herding has long been blamed for land degradation, but current research shows many rangelands evolved with grazing.

The details: - Rangelands produce high-value animal protein, including meat and milk, from land that cannot support crops without heavy inputs. - In Sub-Saharan Africa, pastoralism contributes an estimated 5% to 10% of national GDP and 15% to 40% of agricultural value added. - The report says the full economic value of rangelands in water, carbon, biodiversity and drought protection is not captured by markets. - Land degradation costs trillions of dollars a year in lost services. - Restoring rangelands typically returns $4 to $6 for every dollar invested, and as much as 36 to 1 when public benefits such as water supply are included. - In Jordan, restoring a traditional grazing-rest cycle returned $0.80 for every dollar herders spent, but produced an 18-to-1 return for society, mainly through groundwater recharge. - The report says pastoralists already invest labor, knowledge, livestock and generations of stewardship in rangelands, but they do not capture the value they create for others. - The report calls for public investment to reward that stewardship and unlock private capital. - Drought response is often reactive, with aid arriving after families have begun losing animals. - Drought relief reached an estimated 7% of GDP in Niger during the 2021 crisis. - One evaluation cited in the report found that every $1 spent on timely support can save about $3 in later humanitarian spending. - The report says restoring lightly to moderately degraded rangelands delivers the strongest returns. - Restoring lightly or moderately degraded land can cost as little as $20 per hectare, compared with more than $70,000 for severely degraded land. - The report warns against tree planting on natural grasslands and ploughing drylands for crops, saying those approaches often damage grazing ecosystems. - Secure land rights, strong community institutions and inclusive governance are presented as necessary conditions for investment to work.

Between the lines: - The report is also a critique of how climate and land policy are written. - The word “rangelands” appears in the national climate plans of just 24 countries under the Paris Agreement, compared with “forests” in 181 countries. - That gap leaves out a major carbon store and one of the world’s strongest natural defenses against drought. - The economic framing is meant to shift rangelands from a conservation niche to a mainstream investment case. - The report argues that the biggest returns come from working with existing pastoral systems instead of replacing them.

What’s next: - The report calls on funders and finance ministries to move from crisis response to upfront investment in resilient rangeland management. - It urges governments to place rangelands more firmly into land restoration, drought resilience and investment decisions. - It also recommends writing rangelands into national climate plans and directing climate finance toward them. - The findings are expected to feed into COP17 talks on land restoration, drought resilience and sustainable rangeland management.

The bottom line: - Rangelands are being presented not as empty land to fix, but as a high-value system that deserves capital, policy attention and better governance.