This crisis threatens the livelihoods of more than 2 billion people and is accelerating climate change by releasing stored carbon, driving desertification, and weakening the planet’s natural defenses.
From savannas and steppes to prairies and drylands, rangelands store over 30% of the world’s terrestrial carbon and are among the most species-rich ecosystems on Earth, serving as a powerful natural defense against climate change and biodiversity loss.
These landscapes are shaped and sustained by pastoralists, mobile herders whose traditional knowledge and seasonal movements keep soils healthy, vegetation balanced, and ecosystems productive. When pastoralism thrives, rangelands recover and families can get milk, meat and income even in the harshest climates.
The UN’s International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists in 2026 is a critical moment to change course: to recognize pastoralists’ rights, invest in community-led solutions, and protect the ecosystems that protect us all.
VSF International calls on you to act. Sign the manifesto today. Add your voice to demand rangeland protection, pastoral mobility rights, community-led restoration, and One Health* services for resilient herds and herders.
Your signature strengthens funding efforts, increases pressure on decision-makers, and helps build a global movement for healthy rangelands, thriving communities, and a stable climate.
Together, stand with pastoralists for a connected future.
Rangelands are vital for climate regulation, water cycles, soil fertility, biodiversity, and rural livelihoods. They thrive when pastoralists can move freely with their herds as this keeps ecosystems balanced.
Protecting rangelands means protecting the practices that sustain them and recognizing pastoralism as a vital solution for climate resilience, biodiversity, and food security.
Through deep ecological knowledge passed down across generations, pastoralist communities have adapted to droughts, variable seasons, and fragile landscapes. Pastoralism supports rural economies where farming is often impossible, providing food, income, and cultural continuity.
Yet pastoralists remain among the most marginalized groups in the world. They are often excluded from decisions about their lands, denied secure access to water and grazing, and overlooked by policies that could strengthen their resilience.
Communities cannot thrive without mobility rights, strong local institutions, inclusive governance, and access to quality One Health* services and fair value chains.
What happens in rangelands affects us all. Preserving rangelands and pastoralism keeps global food systems strong, helps stabilize our climate and nurtures vibrant, biodiverse ecosystems, while safeguarding cultural heritages and Indigenous knowledge. Protecting rangelands is not only about remote landscapes or distant communities — it is about the future we share.
Protect land, water, and mobility rights
Invest in community-led animal health
and One Health* services
Support pastoral voices
in national and global policy spaces
Restore degraded rangelands
through locally-led solutions
Join our mission to give pastoralists and rangelands
the recognition and protection they deserve.
Together, we can protect pastoral livelihoods,
restore healthy ecosystems,
and build a resilient, connected future for all.
* One Health means that the well-being of animals, people and the environment are deeply interconnected. In pastoralism, good animal health prevents the spread of diseases and fosters environmental renewal ; healthy pastures support biodiversity and food and water supplies; socially cohesive communities with sufficient and healthy food resources reinforce the care of livestock and the environment in which they live..
More than 200 million pastoralists worldwide care for animals, land, and traditions that sustain life far beyond their horizons.
This video gives voice to their resilience, knowledge, and deep connection with nature, and reminds us why their future is inseparable from ourown.
Watch and be inspired to stand with the Manifesto for Healthy Rangelands, Resilient Communities, Connected Future.
This campaign is promoted by VSF International in support of pastoralist communities and sustainable rangeland management worldwide in the framework of the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists (IYRP)
We are VSF International: a global network of NGOs standing alongside pastoralists and rural communities.
Together, we protect rangelands, care for animals and people through One Health, and defend the rights, knowledge, and dignity of those who keep fragile landscapes alive.
Partilhe esta campanha com a sua rede.
Cada voz ajuda a impulsionar a mudança.
