Campaign for International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists
As part of the campaign to designate a United Nations (UN) International Year of Rangeland and Pastoralists, CELEP endorsed the statement issued during the side event “World’s grasslands and rangelands at risk: the role of pastoralists and livestock to conserve global biodiversity”.
This side event was held on 14 December 2016 at the 13th Conference of the Parties (COP) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Cancun, Mexico, and involved people from 27 countries and 44 local, national and global organisations worldwide. The participants expressed concern that the discourse in multilateral agreements does not adequately acknowledge the multiple benefits of natural grasslands and rangelands compared to forests and mountains. They stressed that many grassland and rangeland ecosystems are critically endangered and called for increased investment in sustainable pastoralism; respect and encouragement of indigenous and local knowledge; suitable enabling policies, social services, and finance; protection of land rights and common property systems; empowerment of pastoralists and other stewards of such lands; strengthened partnerships; and science-based participatory monitoring and research using both traditional means and the latest methods and approaches. They called for a UN resolution designating an International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists (IYRP).
The Cancun Statement on sustainable pastoralism can be found here.
The CELEP statement on the IYRP can be found here.
The flyer calling for designation of an IYRP can be found here.
More information on the IYRP can be found here.
Posted on 22 December 2016 in News, Value of Pastoralism