Global Launch: Rangelands Atlas

ILRI, IUCN, FAO, WWF, UNEP and ILC. 2021. Rangelands Atlas. Nairobi Kenya: ILRI, 42 pp.

26 May 2021. The Rangelands Atlas has been developed to document and raise awareness on the enormous environmental, economic and social value of rangelands as well as their different ecosystems. It highlights many of the changes taking place in rangelands due to climate change, land use and conversion trends, investments and other changes.

Drawing on publicly available data, this Atlas provides a preliminary set of maps that illustrate the complex nature of rangelands found around the world. Furthermore, the Rangeland Atlas reflects a strengthening, global movement to protect, restore and appropriately invest in rangelands.

The report’s authors include the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the World Wide Fund
for Nature, UN Environment Programme and the International Land Coalition, with contributions from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

• 
  Until now, rangelands have rarely featured on international agendas. Just 10 per cent of national climate plans (as part of the Paris Climate Agreement) include references to rangelands, compared to 70 per cent of those plans including references to forests. 
• Rangelands are known to play a key role in storing carbon, providing habitat for diverse wildlife and nature, and supporting the world’s largest rivers and wetlands. A key reason they have been underappreciated is the lack of definitive data capturing their size and value.
• The Rangelands Atlas helps to fill that void and will be regularly updated. 
• It captures key elements of the importance of rangelands, a large portion of which are dry, desert-like areas, for supporting people, wildlife and vegetation.