August 27, 2026
On a rainy day of mid-August, pastoralists, Indigenous pastoralists Peoples, and herders from around the world arrived in Gorkhi Terelj National Park, near Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. They have been convened by the World Alliance of Mobile Indigenous Peoples and Pastoralists (WAMIP) to participate in the World Pastoralists Assembly (WPA) on 15-16 August, a convergence-building process grounded in solidarity and shared political action. The Assembly took place back-to-back with the Global Pastoralists Gathering (GPG), co-organised by the Mongolian Ministry of Food, Agriculture, and Light Industry, FAO, and the Global Alliance for Rangelands and Pastoralists (GA4RP).
WAMIP’s WPA took place at a pivotal moment as 2026 was declared the “International Year of Rangeland and Pastoralists” by the United Nations General Assembly in 2022. International years are declared with the aim of raising the awareness on a specific thematic issue of “global concern”, foster engagement and action by governments, academia, and civil society around the issue. Its implementation is usually facilitated by the UN technical agency of interest. For the IYRP it was the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO).
Pastoralists and Indigenous pastoralists Peoples around the world are facing intensifying pressures on their territories, livelihoods, and ways of life. These include land degradation, the appropriation of communal pastoral lands for industrial and infrastructure projects, and encroachment driven by green climate solutions including carbon markets, renewable energy, mining, afforestation, restoration and conservation initiatives. All these processes contribute to the continuous infringement of their collective rights to land and mobility, including access to transhumance corridors and cross-border mobility. In this context, strengthening WAMIP’s collective action and political response is fundamental.
For two days, the WPA discussed the issues affecting pastoralism around the world, reflected on ways to strengthen WAMIP’s organising at the global level, and reaffirmed the importance of positioning the pastoralists struggle as a key component of the food sovereignty agenda. Moreover, the Assembly has served as a space for coordinating WAMIP’s position for the 17th Session of the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), that began in Ulaanbaatar only a few days after the WPA.
Building on the discussion and the outcomes of the WPA, WAMIP formulated the following demands to bring to the attention of the Parties:
- Recognise, respect, and protect pastoralists’ and Indigenous Pastoralists Peoples’ collective rights. Implement the Voluntary Guidelines on Land Tenure (VGGTs) through concrete public policies that secure their collective rights to land and territories, freedom of movement, security, and mobility. Only by upholding these rights can real and lasting restoration take place.
- Recognize and respect territories as legitimate systems of territorial governance. Support formal recognition and legal protection of land tenure in accordance with customary laws, governance systems, right to self-determination, and Free Prior and Informed Consent, ensuring the full and effective participation and leadership of pastoralist and especially women and youth.
- Ensure the meaningful participation and leadership of pastoralists and Indigenous Pastoralists Peoples, especially women and youth, in all decision-making processes related to restoration, conservation, governance and the management of rangelands. Pastoralists’ Traditional Knowledge and governance systems should be recognised and integrated into restoration and conservation activities. Where protected areas are established, governments should ensure they are designed, governed and managed by pastoralists and in ways that respect and uphold the principles and rights affirmed in the Voluntary Guidelines on Land Tenure, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants (UNDROP), and UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).
- Reframe Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) under pastoralists and Indigenous Peoples rights. Like other offesetting schemes, LDN does not necessarily tackle land degradation at its root. Instead, it may enable further degradation in one place to be offset through restoration and conservation elsewhere, facilitating the expansion of industrial activities and contributing to the encroachment on pastoralists territories. In contrast, WAMIP calls for an adoption of a systemic approach to land degradation and soil health within the UNCCD, and initiate an inclusive and participatory assessment of the harm the current LDN framing is provoking. This systemic approach needs to respect the unity of pastoralist-rangelands systems that goes beyond environmental metrics to include social, cultural, political and economic criteria for the well-being of pastoralists and Indigenous pastoralist Peoples.
Some of these demands, are also reflected in the Global Pastoralist & Indigenous Pastoralist’ call for action, the main outcome of the Global Pastoralists Gathering. This Call for Action constitutes an important milestone for WAMIP, providing a framework for collective global action for pastoralists movements worldwide.
Mongolia, with its deep nomadic heritage, and with more than 70% of rangeland, has provided a politically critical scenario for putting pastoralists and rangelands at the global stage. The convergence of these three events – the World Pastoralists Assembly, the Global Pastoralists Gathering, and UNCCD COP17 – has provided WAMIP with a unique opportunity to strengthen its position as a global grassroots movement representing the voices and struggles of pastoralists and Indigenous pastoralists People worldwide.
Looking ahead, advancing a more comprehensive understanding of food sovereignty within the International Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty (IPC) will require WAMIP’s collective strength and political commitment, to ensure the full integration of pastoralists and Indigenous Pastoralists Peoples’ needs and requests alongside those of peasants and fisherfolk.