Every year on June 17, the world pauses to confront one of the most pressing yet overlooked environmental crises of our time desertification, land degradation, and drought.
This year, the spotlight turns to rangelands: the vast, living landscapes that sustain billions of lives yet remain among the most undervalued ecosystems on Earth.
⚡Why Rangelands Matter⚡
Rangelands are among the world's most extensive yet most overlooked ecosystems. Covering more than half of the Earth's land surface, they play a vital role in food security, water cycles, biodiversity conservation and climate resilience supporting the lives of around two billion people worldwide, including many pastoralists and Indigenous Peoples whose knowledge and stewardship have sustained these landscapes for generations.
Yet these critical ecosystems are in crisis.
According to UNCCD, up to half of the world's rangelands are already degraded, with some disappearing faster than rainforests putting food security, water availability, and pastoralist cultures at serious risk.
The cost of inaction is staggering. Drought, land degradation and desertification are costing the global community an estimated US$878 billion every year.
⚡⚡Three Calls to Action:⚡⚡
Through Desertification and Drought Day 2026, countries and communities are invited to:
👉Recognize rangelands' economic contribution to national and regional economies, their role in sustaining biodiversity and wildlife, and the multiple benefits they provide — from regulating water cycles to storing carbon.
👉Respect pastoralists, Indigenous Peoples and local communities, whose mobility, customary governance systems and ecological knowledge are essential to maintaining the health and productivity of these landscapes.
👉Restore degraded rangelands to secure livelihoods and ecosystem services for future generations.
⚡Global Observance: Kenya 2026⚡
This year's observance is hosted in Kenya the first time in nearly a decade that the African continent holds this honour. @UNCCD Executive Secretary Yasmine Fouad stated: "These landscapes are vital for food, water, biodiversity and climate resilience. By recognising their value, respecting their traditional stewards and restoring rangelands back to health, we can strengthen the livelihoods of two billion people."
This day was established following the Rio Earth Summit of 1992, where desertification, climate change and biodiversity loss were identified as the greatest challenges to sustainable development. The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) the sole legally binding international agreement linking environment to sustainable land management was founded in 1994.
The fight for healthy land is a fight for our shared future. Today, we commit to recognizing, respecting, and restoring the rangelands our world depends on.
#NoDroughtland
#Rangelands #RecognizeRespectRestore
#DesertificationAndDroughtDay
#WorldDayToCombatDesertificationAndDrought
سهیم بودن انسانها در ثروت زمین
این موضوعی را که ما مطرح کردهایم در خصوص اینکه زمین متعلق به همه است و یک ثروتی دارد که به عنوان یک ثروت عمومی محسوب میشود و کسانی که از این ثروت استفاده میکنند، در واقع لازم است که به بخشی از این ثروت را در یک بانک جهانی برای اداره امور همین افراد، به اصطلاح در واقع درآمد سرانه جهانی داریم تعریف میکنیم که طبق این درآمد سرانه، هر کسی که در کره زمین زندگی میکند، یک سهمی دارد، یک حداقل چیزی را برای زندگی دارد.
محمدعلی طاهری بنیانگذار مکتب عرفان کیهانی حلقه و سازمان صلح طاهری
#ثروت_زمین
#درآمد_سرانه_جهانی