About the Event

The third event of the Cross-Learning Series hosted by Knowledge for Great Green Wall Action (K4GGWA) will take a close look at rangelands and pastures, the ecological system that dominates the drylands of Africa and strongly supports rural livelihoods and local economies.

Grasslands cover a huge part of the Earth (up to 28%) and hold massive amounts of carbon. When they’re managed badly, it damages the climate, biodiversity, and local communities. We’re looking at Holistic Grazing Management (HGM), which mimics natural herd movements to make the land healthier, boost biodiversity, and make ranchers and pastoralists more productive and resilient.

Join top rangeland practitioners, insightful experts, researchers, policymakers, and community leaders from across Africa to discuss how to restore Africa’s iconic rangelands. You will experience a blend of expert insights and peer-to-peer learning through engaging breakout discussions.

Note: This is an online event with French – English simultaneous translation.

What to Expect

• Understand the problems facing African grasslands
• Learn the basic soil science behind good grazing
• Hear from people actually doing this work
• Get practical insights into HGM and how it helps the land and the people
• See how HGM fits into the Great Green Wall initiatives
• Get a chance to network and share experiences with peers across Africa
• Build on insights from previous K4GGWA Cross-Learning sessions

Key Concepts

• The Problem: Practices like ‘set stocking’ (leaving animals in the same plot for extended periods) degrades the soil – animals overgraze what they like and their manure fertilizes what they don’t. Fences and infrastructure block wildlife migrations.
• Grass Power: Grasses are unique because they grow from the base, so they can survive being grazed, unlike most other plants.
• How Good Grazing Works: If you let the grass rest after grazing, it rebuilds its roots and helps create rich soil. In nature, predators keep the herds moving, forcing this rest.
• Two Effective Strategies:
  • Nomadic Pastoralism: The old-school, effective way that mimics natural migrations.
  • Holistic Grazing Management (HGM) / Adaptive Multi-Paddock (AMP): This is the modern, farm-scale way. You use small paddocks, graze them quickly, and then give them plenty of rest. This is what helps restore the land.
• Big Deal: Managed grazing is now recognized as important by groups like the FAO and UN, and 2026 is even the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists!

👥 Speakers & Contributors

Who Should Attend

• Livestock and agriculture researchers
• Farmer groups and community leaders
• Policymakers in Great Green Wall countries
• NGOs and rural development practitioners
• Donors and international development partners
• Journalists covering land and food systems

Agroforestry and Trees Outside Forests (AF-TOF) systems are vital for South Asia’s ecological health, rural livelihoods, and climate resilience. These multifunctional land-use systems are deeply embedded in the region’s agricultural and cultural fabric, offering food, fodder, fuelwood, timber, and ecosystem services to millions of people. Yet, their full potential remains untapped.

Despite favourable agroecological conditions and growing domestic demand for wood and tree-based products, South Asian countries remain heavily dependent on imports, with the regional wood trade deficit crossing USD 9 billion in 2022. At the same time, AF-TOF systems face persistent challenges, including restrictive policies, underdeveloped value chains, inadequate investment, and limited technical support.

TREESCAPES 2026 will be a pivotal platform to spotlight the potential of agroforestry and trees outside forests. As the first such regional congress, the event will bring together policymakers, researchers, industry leaders, civil society, farmers, and youth from across South Asia to exchange knowledge, showcase best practices, and explore innovative solutions to mainstream and scale AF-TOF systems in the South Asian region.

The European Center of Sustainable Development (ECSDEV), in collaboration with CIT University, is organizing ICSD 2026 under the theme “Creating a Unified Foundation for Sustainable Development: Research, Practice and Education”.

The conference will address environmental, economic and socio-cultural sustainability, fostering interdisciplinary dialogue and research-based solutions to global challenges and the efficient use of resources.

Biodiversity is critical to ecosystem resilience, human health and well-being, and the economy. But species are disappearing faster than at any point in human history – threatening our food systems, climate, water security and many livelihoods.

Yet transformational conservation is possible. Every four years, global leaders, experts, and advocates gather at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Conservation Congress to shape the future of conservation and sustainable development.

CIFOR-ICRAF will be there, leading discussions on how trees, forests and agroforestry can be harnessed to drive impact for biodiversity conservation.

Few places capture the confluence of the biodiversity and climate crises as evocatively as the Amazon Basin. Its rainforests are home to vast biodiversity and immense carbon stores, and are themselves crucial for global water cycling and climate regulation. Yet the biome hovers close to an irreversible ‘tipping point’ that could see its systems collapse by 2050.

With the Amazonian city of Belém, Brazil as the backdrop for the much-anticipated 30th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC COP30), the critical roles of nature and land use in mitigating climate impacts will be front of mind.

As at previous COPs, CIFOR-ICRAF will bring to the table our decades of research and practice exploring how forests, trees and agroforestry can mitigate climate change and adapt to its impacts, as well as how to work inclusively with people—and secure finance—to achieve equitable progress in these arenas.

Our work is particularly aligned with this year’s focal areas, which include among other things protecting tropical forests, upping NDCs, involving Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLC) as equal partners and promoting agroforestry and nature-based solutions.

Follow our journey to Belém online—or, meet us there!

Under the theme “Accelerating global climate solutions: Financing for Africa’s resilient and green development”, the second Africa Climate Summit (ACS2) provides a platform for stakeholders to advance Africa’s climate agenda and sustainable development priorities. Convened by the African Union and the Ethiopian Government, ACS-2 will highlight proven Africa-led climate solutions and bold efforts to re-green African landscapes.

CIFOR-ICRAF agenda | 8 September

This side event will highlight how Regreening Africa’s large-scale land restoration strengthens food security, advances climate adaptation and mitigation, and contributes to the implementation of the African Union Climate Strategy and the Great Green Wall (GGW) 2030 vision.

Through high-level dialogue with policymakers, researchers, grassroots voices, and technical experts, this event will explore tools to unlock scalable and equitable restoration for climate, biodiversity and resilient livelihoods – through investing in high-quality native tree seed and seedling systems, supporting locally driven restoration, channeling climate finance to grassroots actors, and fostering inclusive governance.