Special High-Level Event on Rangelands and Pastoralists - Action Dome, UNCCD COP17

Means, we know if one of the friendly UN agencies to indigenous peoples, especially pastoralists.
And so from FAO perspective, what concrete changes are needed in policies, investments, and financing that would ensure that indigenous people's knowledge and governance systems are not only recognized but also actually shaped land restoration.
Thank you.
Excellency distinguished representative of indigenous peoples, colleagues, ladies and gentlemen.
FAO recognizes indigenous peoples as distinct right holders and knowledge holders, and that's where recognition leads to one simple point.
Indigenous peoples should not be invited into restoration.
After its goals, methods, and indicators have already been decided.
Indigenous peoples land is not an empty project site.
It is living territory connecting water, soil biodiversity, food and knowledge systems and restoration therefore is not about planting trees or reporting hectors.
The restoration is about restoring the lost memory of their territories and Indigenous peoples led restoration and including the FAO Global Program on Indigenous peoples biocentric restoration begins differently.
Indigenous peoples of the territory define what has been damaged, what must recover, and what a healthy territory means.
They lead design implementation, monitoring and reporting and long term care.
And scientific tools and technical support complement and support this process, but cannot replace it.
This is how indigenous peoples shape implementation of convention not only by contributing knowledge, but by exercising their authority.
Building on Dion five of CP 16, a distinct and adequately supported indigenous people's caucus provides an important institutional space, but its value will be measured beyond the meeting room.
To recognize territorial rights, customary governance system, free prior informed consent of indigenous peoples and indigenous people's own indicators in restoration.
This is why the team of this panel, sacred lands and living Knowledge is so important.
Indigenous people's leadership in restoration and resilience is not simply a contribution of the Commission.
Thank you.
I'm sorry, but I have to leave it there.
Thank you so much.
Thank you very much.
Sorry for rushing, everyone.
But as you know, we have a lot of content to go through and there are two people in this room we definitely want to welcome here onstage to hear their remarks on our very important topics today.
Many thanks to you and for your superb moderation and to all our speakers, please, ladies and gentlemen.
Many thanks.
Next, it's my true honor to welcome His Excellency Elbgds Saya, former president of Mongolia and member of the elders, as well as Yasmin Fouad of UNCCD please.
Welcome, President.
Sambano thank you very much.
You know, I'm one of the members of the elders, which was founded by N Mandela and now 11 of us and myself regarded the youngest elder there.
I'm son of the herdsman, one of the eight sons, and thank you for coming.
And I hope you know all of you know one word from the Zulu Hossa language Ubuntu.
Let's say Ubuntu Ubuntu.
That means we belong to each other.
That means we are friends.
That means we rise together.
Let's indigenous people rise together.
Ubuntu.
I know that indigenous people are our parents, parents of humanity.
The most caring and most loving and most warm hearts belong to indigenous people.
Come back to Mongolia.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you.
This is a pleasure to be here with you in the high level event for the indigenous people.
In the middle of the negotiations that we are having very difficult times here over the next two days.
Thanks to Mongolia for hosting us, for giving us that venue, for raising the pastoralists in the Rangeland high.
Having that declaration and moving ahead, three messages that I'd like to deliver very shortly, very clearly, and very focused.
We still have the mandate of decision five of cop 16, and we will continue to deliver on that.
We're trying to see how best can we put that in the program, both for the indigenous people and for the local communities, and I've done the same message in the morning.
The second part is that looking further on the sacred land, and how can we do that into implementation? We will need governance, we will need land tenor rights, we will need women empowerment, and we will need much more than that.
We will need to still ground and root your culture, your identity, your knowledge, and your experience with the land.
Because for you, land is not only food and water, and we understand that.
But we want some space for us as a Secretariat to continue serving you and looking how best can we do that.
The third message is within that conference, we are aware and totally understand the importance of the non state actors.
And for us, the non state actors is a collective action.
This collective action includes local communities, indigenous people, and we are proud that we got that decision in Cp 16, and that makes our multilateral process different.
But we have also the research institute.
We have the private sector, and we want to move together into that.
We don't want to leave anyone behind.
I know that the multilateral system is about decisions.
But also this COP is about implementation.
And for me, implementation would go beyond what is on paper.
It would go really into how much can we meet in COP 18 and see, even if we don't have that mandate, we have done even a small milestones, and this is what we will try to do.
We will try to mobilize resources at team fighting.
So what we want you to do is to believe in this, believe in us, and give us some space, patience, and tolerance to work together in this journey.
Thank you all very much.
Great.
Thank you.
Yasmin Yasmin, thank you very much for all that.
We have to rush to the negotiation, give her the declaration, and let her run.
We are pointing also on you, really.
And thank you for your time.
Speed.
Your time you are just coming.
Those are the representative of the region.
Tune it up.
Who else specific quickly quickly.
Hello.
Thank you.
Thank you so much, Yasmin.
Thank you, President.
We are going to have a next panel here.
We rush because Yasmin have to rush.
That's why we really did I don't think.
So now, Charlotte will take the floor and we will have the second panel on finance.
And we will have the performance.
After that, with Babamal and we also have Ricky who joins us.
Thank you, Ricky for coming, and please sit down and enjoy the rest of the final journey.
Thank you so much, Hindu, and many thanks to all the speakers who joined us so far here onstage.
We're going to swiftly move on to our panel discussion titled Shepherding the Future, Advancing Partnership, Direct Access to Finance and Indigenous Peoples and pastoralist Solutions for implementation.
So I'd like to call it a stage flow Download from Australian, To Munoz, Terrence Hey, ED, Rosalie Gonzalez, and Deborah Sanchez for a discussion, which will be moderated by Mini Daguan and we're running out of time.
So I'm going to ask you all to be extremely brief and make sure this panel is no longer than 10 minutes only.
So maybe answer one round of questions and wrap up.
Many thanks to everyone, and welcome, of course.
Thank you so much.
And thank you if everybody could settle down.
This is a very important panel discussion because it will talk about financing.
So we have all the very good plans.
We have all our self determined life plans, but if we do not get financing for it, we will not be able to move forward.
So thank you panelists for staying on and taking the time.
I would like to call on Rothy who will present a summary of indigenous people's demands, and then I will ask the panelists to react to it.
Please st them ey.
Que Tai, good afternoon.
I'm Rosie Gonzalez.
It's an honor to join you today.
I speak on behalf of the Continental Network of Indigenous Women of the Americas.
We're 25 National Indigenous Women's organizations from North, Central and South of the continent, and I represent Plum, the National Indigenous Women's Rights Alliance in the United States in North America.
The question before us or that was posed before me was, how do we enable indigenous peoples to lead restoration? Our answer is clear.
And finance indigenous peoples, including indigenous women directly.
Indigenous peoples are already protecting and restoring our lands, waters, biodiversity, and food systems.
We do not lack solutions.
We lack equitable access to resources and decision making power necessary to implement those solutions at scale.
Too much finance is intended to benefit indigenous peoples, yet it moves through governments, international institutions, large organizations, and multiple intermediaries before actually reaching our indigenous nations and our indigenous led organizations.
If it reaches us at all, and that must change.
Direct access means more than another funding window.
It means recognizing indigenous peoples as right holders and decision makers with our own governance institutions, priorities, and knowledge systems.
It means indigenous peoples helping determine what gets financed, how resources are allocated, how success is measured, and who is accountable.
It means ensuring that indigenous women and youth have direct access to resources and decision making power.
I had two examples.
Is there time? Enclosure.
I want to make brief recommendations.
And of course, I will stop here.
Thank you.
Thank you, Rosa.
I think you were very clear on what we mean by direct access to finance.
This has been a rally cry of indigenous people that we want direct access to finance, and that was very clear.
I would like to ask the panelists to re ask that and 1.5.
I'm really very sorry that we are running out of time.
So from the Australian Ministry of Climate Change, Energy and Environment.
No.
Thank you.
It's an honor for Australia to be on this panel today, the Minister for Environment and Water, honorable express complete apologies, so you cannot be here today.
I would like to acknowledge all the indigenous peoples here today, their knowledge, unique expertise, leadership, and leading experience in protecting and restoring our land.
In Australia, we open all our meetings by acknowledging First Nations people and continuing connection to land, waters, and communities, and pay our respect to elders, P and pre.
To echo their words, if you care for the country, it will care for you.
Australia strongly supports the meaningful participation of indigenous peoples through the work and decision making processes of the UN CPP, including through the establishment of the separate Indigenous People's Caupus established at Cop 16.
And the question before us is how do we enable indigenous people to lead restoration? I'll quickly talk about two examples in Australia, our indigenous protected areas and also our Indigenous Ranchers program.
So these are Indigenous owned or managed land and sea country for environmental protection and biodiversity conservation through an agreement with the Australian government to establish an indigenous protected area.
And just a few months ago, we declared the Citizen de indigenous protected area, covering more than 4.7 million hectares.
And this has led to us now meeting milestone of 25% of land protected, moving towards the Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework charter of protecting 30% of land.
Secondly, the Indigenous Rangers Program supports F nations people to combine traditional knowledge to protect land, sea, and culture.
We've already employed almost 2000 indigenous aners and we've recently announced 100 new anger project, which will employ another 1,000 new rangers, including 750 women.
And just to sort of wrap up, We also support synergies through the pre reopening connection.
Recognizing indigenous peoples need to work on harnessing synergies to protect climate, environment, and land and biodiversity outcomes, and we're strongly supporting these causes and forum throughout UNCPD, CBD, and also USC.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
I think the next even is.
So the next speaker is Gonzalo.
If you could point us on the issue of how do we may people's restoration efforts.
Cons.
Thank you to the organizers.
Definitely, the indigenous people of should not be only framed as communities affected by land degradation and drought.
They are, as we know, right holders, knowledge holders and implementation partners that no matter beneficiaries of land restoration, there, it's an architect.
And we were talking about restoring restoring the etymology of the word means bringing it back to life, even remaining standing.
If we apply that to a building, for example, if you think about normally when approaching the idea of restoring a building, the first thing you do is to try to find what's who was the architect, who was the engineer, and who had been leading there, right? So the logic of creating now financing mechanism for the indigenous communities.
And you told me this very well, we need to start by letting them define their priorities, evaluating memorial, the history and creating bottom up approaches through probably blended finance that will allow them to also secure their own governance and their rights and their knowledge into any tool that comes into life.
Thank you.
Thank you, Gonzalo.
Of course, reuse the next speaker.
Everybody knows parents.
So parents need So two years ago when we met in for the high level literacy panel, the message from the small grant program was, yes, we can.
We have 34 years of experience delivering It's you women and persons with disabilities.
So we look forward to sharing those experiences with all of the partners.
The second point I want to make is there's a slight there's something missing in today's title of Land and People.
Animals.
So one of the things I learned this week was that and people and animals are a triangle, and you can't have one without the other.
Here in Mongolia, during the week, some of the pastoralists who buy animals, they followed the animals.
And it's only 8,000 years ago that people 5,000 year culture where the land, people, and the animals are all part of the same thing, the dreaming of the kangaroo, people are part of the land.
The last point I would like to say is that based on the Ulbata Declaration, as NDP, we have launched a new partnership with the Adaptation Fund, working with pastoralists in Africa to go beyond individual grants, but to look at landscape connectivity, look at transhumans, look at migration routes.
This is, I think the challenge before us, not just for direct access, but also on governance and landscape connectivity.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
A very quickly.
Yes.
This is, I think the point is very clear.
We need a feat in the table, we've been saying from yesterday, and one of the real things that we can do for implementation is facilitate the path, facilitate accreditation, facilitate the pathway for indigenous funding mechanisms as open infrastructures of financing.
To get access to the finance that are within any of the conventions.
And I am here talking from the clarified site from the Community and rights and Conservation Financing Initiative is a global funding mechanism led by indigenous peoples, Afro descendant peoples and local community.
But there is many, many brothers and sisters building, constructing, learning how to develop their own funding mechanism at the regional level.
All the way from Indonesia with Aman, IPS in Asia, Rpalia in Congo, Mesoamerican Territorial Fund in Mesoamerica.
Korea has a funding mechanism.
Many infrastructure are already happening, are already learning, we are already delivering and not a small, small funding.
We have, in our case already in the river, $20 million to indigenous peoples and local community in 29 countries.
So scale is visible, and we can do it by ourselves.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
I think it is unfortunate that we have to pay choice, but from examples of Australia and others, there are ongoing initiatives that let indigenous people live through the government, through the traditional knowledge system.
So if you want to know more, please approach the panelists.
They are very willing to share their experiences.
So let's closing up while we are taking the photograph for everybody.
And thank you so much for staying on and thank you so much.
Thanks, Mini, for your moderation.
Many thanks to all our speakers for making very valuable and very insightful points, indeed, relating to sacred lands, shepherding the future.
So we began this morning's session with singing.
It's only fitting that we should end with music.
Close session.
I am delighted to welcome two musicians who have used their extraordinary voices, not just as artists, but also as advocates for communities for culture and for the land.
So please join me in welcoming UN CCD Goodwill Ambassador Baba, joined by Adam Dino.
Thank you.
Okay.
Migibb All right.
Here.
You get your liking.
The world alone meet someone so the world and the world world for the I got I feel like Okay.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, I think that deserves an even bigger round of applause, please, by a wonderful musician.
And many thanks to all of you for joining us this afternoon.
Our next session will start very shortly.
Thank you.
All right.
You are on the field.
Okay.
Uuu long ago.
That's 2 minutes to work.
No.
No.
No.
No.
No.
No.
Next one.
Ladies and gentlemen, may I please kindly invite you to take your seat as we shall start very promptly.
Thank you.
Your Excellency' distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon and dear pastoralists and rangelands joining us here this afternoon too.
My name is Charlotte Kan and it's my honor to MC today's event.
We are here to celebrate the International Year of rangelands and pastoralists to forge a new paradigm for range stewardship and sustainable pastoralism that we hope will carry forward for decades to come.
Over the next hour and a half, we will listen to the voices of pastoralists from around the world, and we'll also hear from leaders across governments and international organizations on how they see the future of rangelands, vast ecosystems covering more than half the world and supporting some 2 billion people.
And to get us started and to get us inspired, it's my great pleasure to introduce All of you to the Mongolian artist, Dave Adlai, with a performance titled Folk Door, Folklore Fant.
Please join me in welcoming him.
Here we go.
Who was too B Do to the song Yi.
Do to the song Yi Do C On it.
Go to the soul Amy.
Do O play to the son Yamadki or Oh.
Ladies and gentlemen, the wonderful Dvai, another round of applause, please, for this wonderful Mongolian artist.
Next, we are delighted to welcome Jonathan Davis.
He's a senior Rangeland expert and has done a lot of work behind the success of the International Year of Range Lands and Pastoralists.
So please join me in welcoming him.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen.
That's a tough act to follow.
Pleasure to be here.
Four years ago, the United Nations General Assembly voted in favor of Mongolia's call to make 2026 the International Year for Range Lands and Pastoralists.
It's a spectacular moment for pastoralists, for rangelands, for the world.
Um a really powerful moment in time to celebrate a shared cultural and natural heritage is an opportunity to overturn decades of neglect of the world's 500 million pastoralists and the stunning landscapes that they are stewards of that cover around half of the world.
Something like the International, it can't happen by accident.
It's the result of the efforts of a huge number of people and organizations going back at least two decades It feels now really like a powerful river of activities of really powerful momentum, a real real celebration of pastoralism at the moment.
And like any river, it has many sources, and it's the confluence of these many tributaries that gives it its power.
My branch of this river began in 2003 in Durban, the World Parks Congress, where indigenous peoples successfully introduced this new paradigm for conservation that put human rights of indigenous peoples really at the forefront of conservation.
It was a turning point in 2003 for a lot of pastoralists on the global stage, they were identifying as mobile indigenous peoples and they were beginning to assert their rights more forcefully and their role as guardians of nature and as stewards of these incredible landscapes.
After about 2006, there were a series of global gatherings of pastoralist representatives organized where pastoralists from different countries and different cultures could share experiences, learn from each other, and develop recommendations to national and international audiences.
It was one of these events in Segovia in Spain, where I was camping with about 350 pastoralist representatives, and it was the night that the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was passed.
There was a huge celebration around that, and it was during those celebrations that I first heard pastoralist leaders calling for an International Year on pastoralism.
That conversation then grew in China 2008, the rangelands and grasslands Congress took place.
That's where we found that there was a group of organizations pushing for a year on pastoralism, another group of organizations pushing for a year on rangelands and grasslands.
Now, it was kind of the confluence of these two groups, these two streams that led to the river that would eventually become the Internet IYRP.
But with a small but very important change from pastoralism the practice to pastoralists, the people.
After that, a long process of building this global movement, securing the support of governments, including, of course, the government of Mongolia, whose championing of this was so powerful, which culminated in the resolution that led to this year being created as the International Year Range Pastoralists.
So many actors, so many organizations involved, notable events, important milestones.
I think maybe the great value so far of the International is this extraordinary alliance that has been built to create it and to secure it.
This is a purely voluntary network of more than 1,000 individuals, more than 400 organizations pooling resources, joining forces, actors who might not traditionally have even considered themselves traditional allies, but they identified a common goal and then they worked towards it.
That goal is to achieve societal recognition of range and pastoralists that is commensurate with their contribution to humanity.
The Alliance formed regional networks, the massive working groups, members from non governmental organizations, pastoralist civil society groups, international organizations, research organizations, governments and they grappled with research and experiences.
They navigated areas of disagreement, finding common ground, common language, simplifying messages to understand different perspectives and what we can learn from that.
I think that interdisciplinary, intersectoral dialogue is networks created that's going to be one of the great legacies of the international Year As I said, the year is the result of decades of effort, but it's really important we don't see the International as the end of anything at all.
It's the beginning of something powerful.
I think the beginning of repositioning rangelands and pastoralists at the heart of sustainable development and redressing the historical marginalization of pastoralists and strengthening pastoral livelihoods by recognizing them as the custodians of many of our most cherished landscapes.
So there you go.
That was my attempt to describe a 20 year journey in 5 minutes.
I think it's fitting that I hand over now to the Silk Roads caravan, who have continued that journey during 2026.
Many thanks.
And many thanks to you, Jonathan Davis.
So, indeed, we're going to carry on traveling.
Earlier this year, a truly epic journey of over 8,000 kilometers took place across seven Euro Asian countries in support of the International Year of Range Lands and pastoralists.
Organized by UN CCD, together with countries and partners, the Silk Road caravan sought to symbolically link Rad Cp 16 to Winn Bator Cp 17.
More than 50 participants from all over the world and different continents took part in this journey.
So let's watch a video to see it in motion.
What a wonderful journey.
The silk road.
It's my absolute pleasure to welcome and ambassador.
Good afternoon, Excellency distinguished guest.
Ladies and gentlemen.
It is my absolute pleasure.
The International Year of Rangeland ands has given the world an important opportunity to look again have been overlooked for far too long.
But perhaps the most important for us today is not simply.
That is what happened because this is also why the Silk Road caravan has been such an important part for me.
The caravan support of the international and pastoralists.
I had the privilege of traveling with the caravan.
What stays with me is not the distance that we travel.
It is the people we met.
Across very different landscapes, we met pastoralists and communities whose lives are closely connected to the land.
But it was never simply about traveling from one place to another.
It was a journey of listening, connection and recognition.
Just as the historic self truth courage knowledge and ideas between societies, this caravan has helped experiences and solutions between landscape bringing greater visibility to range lands and above all toward them.
I want to recognize all the countries that turned this wonderful journey.
Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Russia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan,istan, Kastan, China, Mongolia China and the partners whose generosity and commitment made the caravan possible.
Most importantly, I want to thank the pastoralists and community members who welcomed us, spoke with us and allowed us to learn from their experiences.
We brought some of those experiences with us to Cp 17.
I'm already in the future.
The caravan may have reached Ulan Batar, but the larger journey is only beginning.
And perhaps this is the message I would leave with you today.
If the International Year succeeds in turning recognition into sustained action and in keeping pastoralists their knowledge and their leadership at the center, then 2026 would not simply have been a year we celebrated.
It will have helped launch the decades of action that this landscape and the people who steward them deserve.
This was a dream come true going on the Silk Road journey, we have read so many things about it.
It is like a dream to us.
We have read it in books, we have heard songs about it, we have read poetry about it.
But going in this modern time on another kind of silver crow journey with this caravan of wonderful participants coming from all over the world.
I myself, I am a Fulani woman from Mali, and I come from a pastoralist community.
And having all of these friends with us, sharing the similarities that we all have And the differences that we learned from each other was very, very enriching.
Thank you so much.
Many thanks, Nina.
It was wonderful to welcome you here on stage.
So now let's hear from the participants from the Silk Road caravan themselves.
Please join me in welcoming to the stage, Pavana Robo Desai of Malari Rural Action.
What's a round of applause, please, for our guests.
Thank you.
Jacob Le Ago, who is coordinator of the GA four RP Youth Working Group of Kenya, Koudri Bag Matova of the Rural Development Fund of Kyrgyzstan, and Sum Ashbal of Gingold, Mongolia.
Welcome to all of you.
So thank you so much for joining us here this afternoon with your wonderful outfits and your wonderful stories, no doubt.
So I'd like to start with you, please.
Thank you so much.
If possible, Boer.
And what was your biggest takeaway from all this from this journey? What do you remember most? What stuck with you? I actually know.
I didn't really, like, personally went, but my colleagues who were there, just shared what you learned.
So yeah.
It's really big honor to speak for me on behalf of my colleagues today.
The Green Gold has been five of my colleagues to the different caravan.
So those guys just please give a big applause for them.
This is the given opportunity for us to know each other and work together Well, it was really a great opportunity for us as an NGO to send in our people there.
And we also hosted the Caban participants in a Galaal Pastoral gathering, one of the field trip.
That was really also a big, grateful, appreciated momentum that we had discussed together about the Galpal Pastorals gathering and then taking the input from different countries.
That was really like I couldn't really forget that momentum.
That was really nice.
Then we have just organized the The main global global gathering here in Mongolia, including all the pastoralists around 56 countries, including 250 pastoralists around the world.
And finally, we got global declaration on branching and pastoralists and hand over to the USC City.
So that was the big achievement.
So I have to also say global ideas for pastoralism and pastoralist to make it happen in Mongolia.
Yeah.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Now, Jacob, same, what's your biggest takeaway from this journey? And maybe what do you think should happen next? Yeah, thank you so much and good afternoon everyone.
I think when I participated in the Sweet Grod caravan, much I resonated with it because I can say, regardless of where we come from, in all the regions of pastoralist regions, one thing stood out with me that we share more similarities than differences.
Too much I co resonate with in my own life that is being practiced in Russia.
And I think I went also through the Mongolia, participation through the gathering, and I resonated so much.
It's just that the regions where we co exist from are different, but not the knowledge that is being stored with us.
The other thing is on the indigenous knowledge that has been bestowed within these communities.
The indigenous knowledge is quite similar From all other forms of production, in terms of animal husbandry, in terms of how they coexist with nature.
This thing, I felt like I was at home when I was in Russia, when I'm here in Mongolia.
The last thing is my greatest takeaway is that it reminds me that mobility is not a problem actually to solve, but as assets that we should best store and keep for the pastoralist.
Maybe to give what we should see next.
We should move from celebrating pastoralism into investing it and recognizing it actually as a form, and it is actually an independent form of agricultural production, and we should now start to invest into it and to give it more power to feed the world.
The other thing is to recognize through the UN CCD what they have done across the Eurasia, of all those kilometers, it shows us that we need to restore and strengthen cross border cross regional movement of pastoralist communities, other than just viewing them as a problem when they ask you to move from one place to another.
Maybe the animals may not need passports to cross, but when they get done with what they need, they go back.
They not stay there for long.
The last thing is that a Let's continue the discussion.
Let's continue and build the partnerships that is needed to move this forward.
More importantly, learning platforms that will continue the work that UN CCD through the Silk Road caravan is having all through now to the next generation.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Pavana Thank you very much, everyone.
I think Cava was not only journey of the across the country, but it was a journey learning.
It was a journey for the connections we.
It was a journey of connections and it was a journey of self realization that we are not alone.
We have a sister and brother in different parts of the region who face the same challenges and also have the same solution which we have.
So this is a journey of the self realization also, and it's a journey to learn about how the Kyrgyzstan Pstolis use the traditional knowledge and modern science for the artificial glacier.
So we always support our traditional knowledge, but we always think about when modern technical require.
We also, uh, take this.
This is a journey of the knowledge also.
What is the next? I think as we are sitting in action do, now we need actions.
We need awareness, we did discussions, but we need actions to recognize women, pastoralist women as a leader, not a beneficiary.
We need to finance in the youth because youth are the future of the generation, so direct finance to the youth for the next.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much, Pavana for your call to action.
We are now moving to Y Kuripa.
Thank you.
Magoon, good afternoon.
I would like to share with you what was my biggest takeaway from caravan.
I see all my friends, caravans, family, hi.
Thank you.
For me, the biggest takeaway from the silk Croat caravan is that mobility, it's not simplest tradition.
It didn't live in vigilance when the caravan traveled through Kyrgistan, we didn't only talk about mobility.
We saw was.
We met pastoralists, women, young people, and elders.
We saw how access the water can open remote pastures and reduce pressure on pastures close to villages.
We saw how traditional knowledge, local livelihoods, and community cooperation are connected to resilience of rent.
But perhaps most importantly, the caravan reminds us that postorals are not simply beneficiaries of rent policies, they are land managers, knowledge holders and stewards of these landscapes.
The caravan also showed us the color of connecting different layers, which was mentioned by you.
That my colleagues of connecting different levels from conversation in communities to national policy, dialogue in Kyrgyzstan, then across the Silk Road, and today to Cp 17.
We think what should happen next? For me, answer is clear, the caravan shouldn't end here.
First, we need to turn what we heard.
Thank you.
First, you need to turn what we heard into policy and practice, protect seasonable mobility and access to pastures and water, support infrastructure that makes mobility possible and ensure that pastorals have a meaningful voice in get planning and monitoring.
Second, I would like to propose one very practical step.
Every year on the world day to combat desertification and drought, each participating country could convene a national policy dialogue on range and pastoralism.
Pastoralists, governments, researchers, civil society woman and youth could come together and ask what was changed? What commitments have been implemented and what needs to happen next? The outcomes of this national dialogue.
Groups that travel with the silk caravan, connecting experience, solutions across countries and carrying community voices into the UN CCD process.
And this brings to me the caravan itself for our ancestors.
Caravan was much more than a journey from one place to another.
It was as an institution of endurance, mutual understanding, mutual learning, exchange resilience and wisdom.
I believe the silk road caravan can take off this role again today, but in a new form.
Let's let it become a mobile knowledge bank, living laboratory and shared repository of pastoral knowledge and experience traveling from community to community and country to country, from continent and continent, sharing solutions and carrying local voices to national and dial and global decision making.
In Kyrgyzstan, after the caravan left communities partners and our elders, spiritual, cultural practitioners continued asking us, what happened next? Will the caravan continue? For me, this is perhaps the strongest sign of its success.
Let us to make the silk rod caravan a one time So let us not make Silk Road caravan a one time journey.
Let us make a living platform connecting communities, countries, and generation, carrying knowledge forward and turning dialogue into action.
And after traveling together along the Silk Road, perhaps we have learned one more thing mobility matters, and in a way was a noma tour, carrying knowledge, ideas, and friendship from one place to another.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Good wea.
Let's transform this wonderful Silk Road caravan into a mobile platform of knowledge sharing.
That's one of the greatest takeaways from this conversation.
Many thanks to all of you for joining us here onstage today and sharing your wonderful journey with us.
On behalf of many of us here in the room, slightly envious.
Thank you.
Thank you.
So we now turn to our next segment, which is about partner initiatives working on the ground.
I'm delighted to welcome Gretel Aguilar, who's Director General at IUCN, Gloria Judy, who's Secretary Committee on Forestry at FAO, Marci goda director at the International Land Coalition, and Jarachm Parry, who's Global Leader for Food and Agriculture at WWF International.
Welcome to all of you.
And thank you for joining us.
Yes, let's have a round of applause, please to welcome our guests here.
And I am going to start with you, Gatt, please for your statement, please.
Can you hear me.
So thank you very much.
And in terms of a statement, I have to say that Forster know about their land, and they're not beneficiaries.
They are owners, partners, stewards at the center of range line resilience.
So local experiences here is clear that is needed, that it must be at the center of decision making and also the right policies at the right time, of course, combined with investment.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Katel.
Next, we're going to hear from Horia, please.
Thank you very much for inviting me in this important discussion.
I work for the COFO working Group on dryland forest and aggressive pastoral Systems, which is a platform with 80 countries globally from dryland.
And what we are learning there, and I would like to show some pictures now here because we organized the workshop before or just before COP asking exactly the same questions.
What do we need for a paddig shift that we move to the recognition, but also investment and development of pastoralism I would like to maybe just a few ideas on that.
The first one is that it is really important in the context of the International Year of Precis and pastoralist that we look at the dry ends as places where there is valability is a part of the system.
Viability is a part of the dryland system.
Managing this variability, how do you manage variability? You manage variability with mobility.
I have been working on pastoralism time myself from an indigenous pastoral community which sedentarized at the end.
It's really important to recognize mobility as the best way to manage island.
In many places, we cannot manage the systems by sedenrization because that creates issues.
But mobility, it's the genuine way of managing it where we can connect different landscapes, different systems, Thank you.
Different knowledge and different experience.
And we have people moving, you know, sometimes, 3,000 kilometers in the Sahel.
So even when we talk about landscape approach, this is not enough because those landscapes are really big, so mobility is really key.
Thank you very much.
Here we are.
Marci, what is your perspective on partner initiatives working on the ground, please? Thank you, Charlotte, and colleagues, it's really wonderful to be here.
I think that a long overdue change is underway in how we value pastoralism and pastoralists, and how we understand range lands and what we are prepared to do about it.
I want to start with the narrative because the narrative, I believe, is the underlying issue.
I don't think that the tremendous value of pastoralism and rangelands is widely understood outside the space and I will admit that a year and a half ago, I also didn't understand that.
Pastoralists stewarding 45% of the Earth's surface, rangelands sequestering almost as much carbon as forests.
Rangelands are economic powerhouses, and pastoralists are their stewards.
But instead, for decades, pastoralists mobility has been seen as something to restrict, to manage, to phase out.
I want to be blunt.
We've heard it here today, that framing is wrong, it has cost us.
Mobility is not a problem, it is a solution.
And that is a shift that the International Land Coalition is supporting our membership of over 322 organizations working on people centered land governance, including many pastoralist organizations and many members here in this room.
When we ask them what they need most, the answer is consistent across regions, across contexts, secure rights to land and mobility.
Thank you.
And with this as the background, the International Land Coalition launched mobility Matters, a global campaign supporting grassroots led multi stakeholder platforms in 13 countries to shift the narrative, to strengthen the evidence base, to influence national policies, and to amplify pastoralist voices.
Quick examples of what we're doing.
In Cameroon and Burkina Faso, we are linking land rights to livestock laws and food systems, demonstrating that mobile pastoralism outperforms settled systems in dry land contexts, sustaining millions of livelihoods.
In Kenya and Tanzania, gender inclusive, participatory range land management has strengthened governance of nearly a quarter million hectars, coordinating mobility and local action at scale.
And then here in Mongolia, our members, sil and the National Federation of Pasture User Groups have helped establish over 2000 community rangeland management organizations, and the rotational grazing and multi year resting agreements they manage have significantly cut heavily degraded rangeland in this country, a direct contribution to Mongolia's NDC 3.0 commitments.
Last week at Mongolia House, we presented the first ever pastoral tenure dataset collected with the government's land agency, pastoralists and the Mongolia National Land Coalition.
And the data, which represents the perspectives of more than 1,000 herders, government officials and land experts in every Img or province across the country maps the true extent of pastoralist tenure security.
As a result of this, the Mongolian government has announced concrete commitments to develop a codified standard on free, prior and informed consent for pastoralists, secondary regulations on the law on herders, and building legal literacy among herders and officials.
The pattern across every one of these examples is the same.
Secure land rights and mobility do not just protect pastoralist livelihoods.
They deliver measurable outcomes for climate, biodiversity, and our food systems.
So the evidence is there.
The direction is clear.
What is needed now is the narrative shift pastoralism and mobility understood as sustainable systems that support people, planet, and prosperity, and both the political will and the resourcing to match it.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mci.
Jae, I'm turning to you next because at WWF International, you're organizing being part of the more Grasslands and Savannah's Initiative, the midcop workshop.
So what is the one recommendation from the midcop discussions landscape of life that most needs to move from paper to practice according to you? Thank you so much.
Char delighted to be here.
Good, everybody.
Yeah.
Over the last weekend, WWF and the Sustainable Fiber Alliance, we hosted approximately 200 guests from 73 organizations to discuss the value of grasslands, rangelands, and savannas.
And we came up after the two day discussion with five action points.
That to take pastoralists, pastoralism, and the value of these incredible natural systems forward.
The five actions, I'm just going to read them quickly and then come up with the one action point that brings it all together.
The participants, and we transformed that into an action agenda.
Are calling for the following.
The first item in the list is to secure rights and ensure local pastoralists are included in decision making processes regarding grasslands, savannas and rangelands.
The second action item is that managing grasslands needs to be considered as a system that connects social, ecological, and productive aspects.
The third action point is that the participants called for making sustainable range land management economically worthwhile.
Fourth is about indicators that we need to use systemic indicators to inform management decisions in these natural systems.
And the fifth is about what connects us all today.
It's about fixing policy fragmentation and creating synergistic conditions for rangelands, grasslands, and savannas to be managed systemically.
So I'm mentioning these five things, and I will come up with the one thing that connects all of the five is the transformation of food and agricultural systems.
Today, food and agricultural systems are responsible for about 70% of the biodiversity loss on land.
Right? It's responsible for deforestation and conversion.
So unless we make we transform food and agricultural systems from being part of the problem to becoming part of the solution, these issues for range lands, tivans and grasslands will not disappear.
At W We use the approach of nature positive agriculture.
And that means that agriculture today needs to transform so that it will protect natural systems from conversion and deforestation for food and feed production.
It means that the lands and waters that produce food today need to be sustainably managed.
And it also means that soil health and water systems health need to be restored for the sake of people and nature and especially those who depend on them, such as pastoralists.
Thank you.
Thank you, John.
I will say.
Very important and good recommendation, indeed.
So we're going to have a second round of questions, but I will ask you all to be very brief, please, because as always, it's CP 17, we have a lot to cover during this session.
So back to Gatt maybe very quickly.
According to you, what is the missing ingredient in today's global movement for range lands? Thank you.
Thank you very much.
For me, the missing ingredient is sustainable investment.
When I mean sustainable investment is sustainable investment at scale, in UCN we have seen that when we have little projects that last two or three years, that's not sustainable.
People need long term support in projects programs that really stay with them until things are better.
Short investments, quick investments, those normally do not have great success.
For me, sustainable investment and also sustainable investment at scale.
It's not just to go to a little place of the world or just to work with one community, it needs to be at the level of an ecosystem.
It needs to be at the level of entire community.
I know that drop by drop matters, but we have to coordinate those drops.
Otherwise, it won't work.
I think that we are wasting a lot of time, effort, and money in not putting together those drops for the drops to become a strong rain.
Thank you very much, Mateel.
Thank you so much.
Pura now, can you maybe explain to us why dry land degradation continues to exist and those are the biggest barriers, the biggest blockers to action to change it.
Thank you very much.
I think one aspect we are really seeing is the fragmentation of action, the fragmentation of finance, the fragmentation of programs.
So I would say that the issue we need to solve is really how to look at those landscape as connected systems.
Like when pastoralists use the systems, they are not seeing five sectors, forestry, livestock, biodiversity.
They see them, they use them in a way which is really connecting.
And I think there is one aspect that I would like to bring is the climate change or the drought.
We are seeing an increase in the impact of climate change and this is really something which is bringing dryland to a different level of a system which is really needing to adapt.
Here, as I mentioned, we had these workshops where we were working with IDRA, UN CCD, and also our Mongolian partners from the National Forest Agency.
What we are doing here is we are trying to connect the dots, connecting the dots of drought and aggro civil pastoral system and trees and forests and their role to support pastoralists indigenous peoples and local communities in terms of managing the drought.
I think maybe to conclude is, I think we know what is working in many places, but what we need to learn is how we do it together.
I think this is one really important aspect of connection.
Thank you very much, Marcia, thank you.
Yes, working together.
Be.
Thank you for that.
Marci, when pastoralists have rights, secure rights, when they have a voice, when they are able to be mobile, what changes on the ground and what evidence gives you confidence that we are heading in the right direction, if we are? Thank you.
I think I actually already spoke to some of that in terms of what we've seen in Kenya and Tanzania, here in Mongolia, in Burkina, and other countries.
As I said, we've launched this campaign with three objectives, changing the narrative, changing policies to be more supportive of precisely what we're talking about, and then driving financing, which others have spoken to to range lands and directly to pastoralist organizations, not as beneficiaries, but as rights holders.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Yesterday, we heard from six of our national coalitions, some of them are here with the specific campaigns that they have.
If you go on the Mobility Matters 2026 website, if I can plug the campaign, you will see the countries, you will see the laws or the regulations that they're actually trying to change.
And we're not doing that in isolation.
We're doing that through multi stakeholder partnerships.
So as Hura says, the importance of collaboration, and that includes government.
Ultimately, whatever global frameworks we have, whatever supportive regional organizations we have, impact happens at the national level, and that's what we need to focus on, and that's what we need to measure.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Marci.
Thank you.
So, to conclude very briefly, what would success look like if governments, businesses, and all communities took the recommendation you made seriously.
All right, thanks.
Thanks a lot.
Every time I think about what success looks like, I always like to think of success on four fronts.
One is that whatever we do, we need to respect planetary boundaries, and food and agricultural systems is the first one that needs to be changed into nature positive so that it keeps its actions within planetary boundaries, which is not happening today.
The second one is that we need to be obsessed about places.
We need to deliver action on the ground, and we need to be able to do that effectively and efficiently.
We need to think about landscapes as multifunctional, not as one thing or another.
We cannot treat biodiversity, climate, water, supply as distinct things.
We need to bring to assume a whole of landscapes approach.
The third aspect is about people.
We need local involvement.
We need the involvement of pastoralist, local communities, indigenous peoples in decision making and to make sure that they are the beneficiaries of change or successful change.
Fourth, and lastly, it's about prosperity.
We need to make sure that everything we do that generates wealth, that this wealth be equally distributed or fairly distributed across the agency in a particular landscape.
So everything we do at WWF in terms of success, we always call on these far pieces, planet, places, people, and prosperity.
Thank you.
Thank you.
And many thanks to all our speakers.
Thank you.
We're going to wrap up this session, but not without, once again, thanking you so much for your very valuable insights and perspectives on partner initiatives working on the ground.
Many thanks to all of you once again.
Thank you.
Next, we would like to invite you all for a moment of reflection.
And to do so, I'd like to invite to the stage Adnen Hilari who's a pastoralist from Sa, that's in Tunisia and a coordinator of Green IRP.
He will read a poem to us.
Welcome.
Thank you.
Hello.
I'm very happy to be here to thank the family of Unity, the organizer of this famous and historic Silk Road caravan.
And in this moment, I prepared my poety collection.
The wind keeps our footprints.
I will read in Arabic in my language, and I will write it for you in English.
Ahuj Tuna obj Balata abated.
Serktl Ep Set, Aktihu, Halakt Fucal Gel, V Tubi, Fbtadtan, Rutuhariua Shia, Whos A, Bria, Saraukrita, Phil Haiku, Hi Hafa, Tatta Sahara, Wuzumu Ketan, Agan in Muhapu Asha, Lamb, fetal tutoria, Vela baba butrana.
The win The wind keeps our traces.
One day, the wind lost its compass.
It crossed borders, stole smiles, waned steps, greeted mountains, and forgot to return home.
So it invented a caravan, shepherds, poets, dreamers, guardian of the Earth and children of the wind walked together on a load that existed on no map.
These haikus are their invisible foot brands.
Drops of laughter and the desert, stars among the herds, songs hidden in the grass.
The silk road caravan did not follow the path of the wind.
The wind followed our footsteps.
And in this moment Many thanks to you, Adnan, for this wonderful and very welcome moment of reflection.
I beg to present this trophy for Zenia by the name of the Shepherd of Tunisia.
That's wonderful.
Thank you, Zena.
Do we have a photographer, please, so we can remember this moment.
Adnen Hilai, ladies and gentlemen, let's give him another big round of applause, prince.
And for our next dialogue on how we can transform the International Year of Range Lands and Pastoralists into decades of action, please join me in welcoming to the stage Gregorio Velasco of the Secretariat of the International Year of Range Lands and Pastoralists.
Thank you.
At FAO, I should add thank you and welcome.
Please take a seat.
Fiona Flint of International Livestock Research Institute, sorry.
And Carlos Enrique Michel Lopez of the Global Alliance for Range Lands and soilist.
Welcome to all of you.
Fiona, let me start with you.
What were particular highlights or challenges that you have encountered in engaging the various stakeholders involved? Um, yeah, here at COP, I think we as a group, and myself, we really tried to focus on three things.
One was one is still invasive species.
And we've really realized that this is not something that is really high on the agenda.
Here at the UNCCD CP and also in other discussions.
And it's really invasive species really are the most fundamental challenge that most Aients are facing.
And the COP here has really been an opportunity to mobilize some really key actors, and this is something that's not going to change overnight, but it's definitely something that we really anticipate building that momentum and focusing on, and perhaps we'll have more to show at the next COP.
Second is data.
The need for data to support investments, to support monitoring, national range monitoring systems, and also globally.
And one of the things that we auxiliary are doing with partners is to firstly, do an updated global range lands map.
And a more detailed mapping, and then also develop a global range data platform that will be a legacy for us going forward.
Thirdly, investment.
There's been a lot of talk about that here at the CP and we've realized that there's really a need to ensure that that financing at coming in from global level is really going to benefit the communities partialist, other ranges on the ground and build their capacity to enable them to play equal partners in those investment decisions.
Thank you very much, Gregorio.
Same questions here for you.
What were the particular challenges you encountered to really engage everyone? Well, thank you very much P, to invite me to be here with all the friends around the room.
I guess that the international year was a really beautiful commitment from all the parties to be together.
As Jonathan David mentioned before, I was not from the very beginning, but from 2016, trying to lead with other colleagues from other institution individuals to really push forward the international year or all the the subject related to the international idea because it's not about the international year, it's about many things and topics that we are discussing during the COP during those days related to Ren and pastoralism.
And I think it was a really beautiful way and a beautiful trip that we had together.
And for the discussion and to keep the rib flowing, as Lieutenant Dave mentioned before, in my perception, we have two main topic of discussion during the COP, which one of them is the convergence of the three Rio convention.
And I think is the time to really make real this convergence of the three real conventions to the demonstration of how one particular likelihood and ecosystem could contribute to the convention, particularly on the Coy Montreal global biodiversity framework, the land degradation neutrality of the national determined contribution.
And I think pastoralist could be one of the beautiful likelihood to really see how it's contributing to the three of them.
The way to do it manual really.
But it will be beautiful to see how the pastoralist contributing to the wealth, being of the communities and the society as a global level.
And the second subject that I think it was highly discussed was investment in the Rangeland.
I will adjust responsible investment of the Rangeland because not all the investment things I think it could be really welcome into the Rangeland.
But I think this is about the flagship the Rangeland flagship initiative that we will launch that it could channel we hope to channel through this new initiative, the investment that we are expecting to have to sustain and to promote the pastoral system and Rgeland globally.
So any of them, I have another do that I will give the room to my friend **** here nearby, but I don't miss the opportunity to call for the two countries and the representative from countries to keep the momentum on the international year by requesting the United Nations system to have at least ten year of action To sustain Greenland and pastoral systems around the world.
I think the other day at the committee of the whole, some country was proposing international day of Rensland pastoralism.
One day in a year, taking care of the Greenland pastoralist to me is not enough.
We need to take care of the pastoral 365 years a day.
So I will call for country representative here to request system to have a ten year faction for support of pastoralz sustainable rland management.
So I finish here.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.
Carlos, Enrique, same here, what particular challenges did you encounter or maybe opportunities, maybe some very positive things that happened while you were doing it? Well, thank you very much.
Thank you for an invitation.
Well, I first want to start by I'm not going to describe again the history that was brilliantly described by Unatan.
But first, I want to start by recognizing all the people who made this movement possible.
The people that are no longer on Earth.
First, like to mention some names because there are many people that are no longer on us, Garg, Goke, Jorge Fz Ochoa, who first described Solism in the endz only 40 years ago, my dearly friend, Black people who has also worked hard and are not here with us physically, but they are still here on Earth and Waters, Marianne Fuller, Barbara Hutchinson, they couldn't be here, but they have really worked hard to make this global alliance possible that make this year possible.
And also to recognize all the people in the global alliance who working on a voluntary way because we're all volunteers and the global Secretariat, the working groups, the regional risks, and also the global coordination groups that were people really dedicated to make all this possible.
So I wanted to start with that because we need to honor the people who made this possible and who made it with a lot of heart and with a lot of effort, and we will mention that there.
Then I want to say to mention the second point, a from my role as a coach.
Because I being only the co chair here for the past three years, I am one of the last ones joining the Global Alliance.
But I am a veterinarian from practicing on this for more than 20 years.
And it's like a very short personal record.
When I was finishing the school and I told my friends at the veterinary school that they was going to be dedicated to Al Pakistan llamas, they said, Okay, you want to be poor.
That was the first reaction of them.
And I said, No, I'm going to be rich in a different way.
Now that I am sitting here among all of you and among all the personalist people, I think that I accomplished that.
I feel that I am now the richest or follow them in a different way because wealthy and money, it's not always the way to become rich.
I feel that I am rich in a very different way though they are.
To answer the question, what now? I feel that that was just for the context.
This is a graduation for the global alliance because we make this with lots of love.
So this is like when you present your thesis, you know, for a PhD or a master's degree or for an undergraduate.
So it's like now what's next? Now, should I work? Should I do I am not going to continue studying.
International year was something that really moved us all to get into this point.
And so many things we have achieved so far.
And as we say in my country, nobody can take away what we have dance, So nobody will stop this movement.
Now we have mentioned, the coalition of countries.
We have the Range flagship Initiative.
We have the cellular project sections going to the ground.
We have several projects that are happening, but I think that what is most important is the movement that is behind all of this, the recognition of the pastoralists, the way that we're getting all together.
So the global alliance will of course, into our organization of our democratic ways, our institutionalizing our governance systems, but we will still be here beyond 2026.
We apply for a decade of action for the International Day of pastoralists and of course, to support the governments and the Coalition States.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Carlos Enrique.
Well, the movement you have alluded to is the perfect segue for my next round of questions or questions related to the momentum.
How do we keep the momentum going, Fiona? I don't think that's in question.
I I think everyone is committed.
We will be doing more of the same.
There may be a little bit of restructuring.
I think we can work better to ensure that partialists and the an ancient Jews have a voice in that movement.
Perhaps we haven't got it entirely right yet.
And I think that as a group of multi stakeholders with representatives of partialists, we have that strength.
We just maybe we need a month off just to catch up with some sleep.
But I think after that, we will continue moving forward.
Thank you very much, Gregorio.
Hello.
Yeah.
I think I answered partially the question before with the different initiatives that I identify, but I would like to think beyond, and I think during that time, there were really a movement as mentioned by Enrique on institution on research on international organization, local organization.
But I think maybe popping the way until now until the International year, the COP and all the really big event that we are organizing during the year, to recognize the pastoral communities around the world.
Maybe now to keep the momentum, we need to let the communities really lead now because we will we will be somehow leading from the global alliance and from the different institutions, all this.
But I would like to see now keeping the momentum from the pastoral communities because we pave the way to have the recognition and to really claim for the rights and to really be really on the center of the decision making and to really be considered as they should be.
And I think the communities now, pastoral communities need to be organized, need to be well structured and really make a step forward to really position themselves because we pave the way here, and we will continue to support pastoral communities.
But I would like to see how they lead somehow and they keep the momentum from the end because we already have a lot already done, and I would like to really to see all those people really standing by and standing on the front row of the thing.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much for an important message to the community of pastoralists.
They need to take stock right now to keep the momentum going.
Thank you very much for that.
Carlos, Enrique.
Thank you.
Well, actually, the richness of this interdisciplinary group that was built within the global alliance is something very important.
We need to keep this movement up and to try to include more of the voices of pastoralist but the real voices, like they speaking by themselves.
And something that will be very important is that these speeches that turned into actions.
So at the national level.
So we're here discussing policies at a global level, but these need to be translated into some actions at the national level and into projects that will go to people in the communities in Honolulu, to pastoralists, to recognize that what they are doing is something sustainable and that it's humanity itself, the history as well.
Thank you very much to wrap up this conversation.
And I'd like to ask you for one more thing.
Maybe one word to describe your emotions, your feelings after this incredible journey and after working on this wonderful initiative.
You mentioned humanity, for instance, Carlos Enrique.
What's the word that springs to your mind? Yeah, because we should start by recognizing that all practices that were under represented in policies in decision making are now the way for sustainability.
Now the world recognizes that traditional knowledge is very important, but traditional knowledge has something more, that is the local actions, that is the local knowledge, that is the way of adaptation.
So we can be very similar with the pastoralist cultures, but the answers and the actions should be found at the local level.
So the voices must be considered at the local level, and this is the very important part.
So local is the keyword here.
Por the two words, changing the narrative that I think we are getting there.
It's amazing the way that we are moving forward on the changing of the narrative when looking at past system.
Before we were guilty for everything for climate change from degradation, for every single problem, pastoralists we And now really we are getting there to change the narrative and to stay clearly.
And because of the also boosting evidence through the project on the field, through this research, to action in the field and really bringing data, bringing evidence on biodiversity on many other different aspects of the pastoral system.
And we are really getting there and changing the narrative, which is, I think, the most important thing to me.
Thank you.
So changing narrative Fiona.
If I had to speak one word, it would be motivated and motivated to work with full partialist to secure their land tenure, to improve management practices in the face of all the different challenges, including such as invasive species, and to help partialist to secure some of that investment that is flowing through and have it under their control so that they can plan and engage in that investment on a level playing field.
So what's the keyword then empowerment? Basis.
Motivation.
Motivation.
That's a fantastic one.
Many thanks to all of you, our speakers for sharing your views on how we can keep the momentum of this wonderful international year of rangelands and the sorists many thanks to all of you.
And now for closing remarks, it's our honor to invite to the stage His Excellency Sango Sand, Minister of Environment and Climate Change of Mongolia.
Your Excellency, please.
Negin condensing cangin withlo, mustard, p leaders in international organization, distinguishes Executive Secretary of the United Nations conversation to the combat certification representative from the pasturs and range users, distinguished representatives of academic and civil society and private sectors.
I would like to express my sincere appreciation to all of you for participating in this special high level event on the range land and pasturies and for the sharing your valuable insights and experience.
Today's event is particularly significant not only because of its being the halt during the CP 17, in the framework of the United Nations International League of Rangeland and pasturalist, but also because it's helping to bring Rangeland to the part of the global development agenda.
The RID action agenda adopted by the CP 16 laid in the important foundation for the Innovative Sustainable range land management and the participation of the Dot community to the global policy level.
Today's discussion dialogue has been a concrete continuation of this process.
Mongolia is likewise committed to the advice and the implementation of the Rad action agenda and bring range lands to the center of the global agenda and degrated land restoration and food security and the climate adaptation.
Today's high level event has made one thing very clear to us, which is ranch lands are not mainly a land resource.
They underpin food security, water resource, and biodiversity, local development, and the livelihood of the millions of people.
Mongolian, we have some proverbs saying such a part of the livestock and your mouth will be the nourish.
This is the traditional saying reflecting the inseparable relationship between the rangeland livestock and the food security.
Mongolia's nomadic civilization has developed around this principle for centuries.
For the centuries, Mongolia's nomadic pasturalism has been based on the respecting rangeland, carrying capacity, seasonal migration, and the rhythm of the nature.
It traditional demonstration that sustainable ranch land management is not mainly livestock issues.
It's a fundamental to the national food security and the people's livelihood.
Yet the challenge posed by the climate change, land degradation, drought, the sort and the water scarcity are becoming increasingly severe under the circumstances of the safeguarding the future of the ranch land is not the responsibility of any one country alone, it's our shared responsibility.
Three clear conclusion emerges from this discussion.
Firstly, sustainable rangeland management must be closely integrated into the development policy and climate change adaptation measures and the nature conservation objectives.
Secondly, Pastures are not me producers, they are the custodian custodian of the rangeland ecosystems, altars of the traditional knowledge and essential harshness and sustainable.
Thirdly, we need to concrete steps to move from the commitments of action and from the to the investment.
As the presidency of the CP 17, Mongolia has advised on the SPA actions agenda, which is fully aligned with the conclusion of today's discussion, we are confident that the proposal of the Rand flagship initiative under the agenda can serve as an international platform that brings together the Range D conservation and re restoration of the degradated land and the pasture participation knowledge exchange and the investment.
The future of the rangeland cannot be separated in the future pasturalism without healthy range land, there can be no sustainable pasturalism and without the participation of the pasturalist, there can be no healthy range lands.
Therefore, I would like to view this today is not as the conclusion of discussion, but is the beginning of the new chapter of the cooperation.
I called upon all of due to work together in the translate ideas, initiatives, and partners that have to be emerged here today into the concrete action.
I believe that all participants in this event share their fundamental understanding.
If we restore our land and we are safeguarding livelihood and if we can support our pastries, we can safeguard our future.
I'm confident today's discussion will be shared tomorrow's policy and the participants cannot forget today's.
Thank you, and this high level, I declared this special high level meetings closer.
Thank you.
Stakeholders and the artists who joined us here this afternoon.
Okay.
One more, please.
We're missing a few people.
Are we missing anyone? There you go.
Many thanks to all of you.
Congratulations on all your work.
And