24/02/2026
๐๐ข๐ฏ๐ข๐ฅ ๐๐จ๐๐ข๐๐ญ๐ฒ ๐๐ง๐ข๐ญ๐๐ฌ ๐๐ญ ๐๐๐๐๐๐+๐๐: ๐๐ซ๐จ๐ญ๐๐๐ญ ๐๐จ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐๐ญ๐ข๐ฏ๐ ๐๐๐ง๐๐ฌ, ๐๐๐ฌ๐ญ๐จ๐ซ๐ ๐๐๐ง๐ ๐๐ฅ๐๐ง๐๐ฌ, ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐๐๐ฎ๐ซ๐ ๐๐๐ฌ๐ญ๐จ๐ซ๐๐ฅ๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ ๐
๐ฎ๐ญ๐ฎ๐ซ๐๐ฌ
Ahead of the ICARRD+20 conference, civil society organisations, social movements, Indigenous Peoples, and pastoralist groups from Africa and the Global South have released a joint statement declaring this moment as one of "deep crisis and urgent possibility."
Twenty years after the first conference, communities continue to face dispossession and land concentration. Customary and collective land systems are being undermined by agribusiness expansion, carbon offset projects, and extractive industries, which are accelerating soil degradation and social inequality.
Pastoralists at a Crossroads
With 2026 designated as the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists, the statement highlights that pastoralist communities are among the most severely affected. The expansion of factory farming and industrial livestock production is concentrating land and undermining systems essential to food sovereignty. The statement insists that pastoralism remains one of the most climate-resilient land-use systems and that livestock mobility is essential for maintaining ecological balance in drylands.
Key Demands to Governments:
The statement calls on governments and international institutions to make ICARRD+20 a turning point by committing to:
โขRecognise and protect collective and customary land tenure systems.
โขProtect pastoralist rangelands and livestock mobility, preventing their conversion to inappropriate uses like monoculture tree plantations.
โขImplement genuine agrarian reform and equitable land redistribution.
โขEnd land speculation and financialisation, including carbon credit schemes that dispossess communities.
โขRedirect agricultural and climate finance toward agroecology and rangeland restoration.
โขProtect land and environmental defenders from violence and criminalisation.
โขEstablish binding corporate accountability for human rights violations.
The Path Forward
The statement concludes that the future lies in restoring community control over territories and supporting agroecological transitions. "Land justice is climate justice," the statement affirms. "Pastoralist mobility is ecological resilience."
The coalition urges ICARRD+20 to renew global commitments to land justice, led by the communities that sustain the worldโs food systems.
Read the full statement below
https://afsafrica.org/icarrd20-joint-civil-society-statement/
