TEHRAN – Given the vital role of rangelands in food security, the water cycle, biodiversity conservation, and climate resilience, their restoration is the key to reversing desertification and enhancing drought resilience.
Experts believe healthy land is essential to thriving economies and societies; it supports agriculture, supplies food, and contributes to water and climate security. Rangelands are among the world’s most extensive and yet most neglected ecosystems. They support the lives of about 2 billion people worldwide, including many pastoralists and indigenous people.
Sadly, every minute, an area of land equivalent to four football fields is degraded, leading to biodiversity loss, increased drought risk, and community displacement. The global impacts include rising food costs, instability, and forced migration. Currently, up to half of the world’s rangelands are degraded or at risk, with serious consequences for food and water security, biodiversity, climate resilience, and rural livelihoods.
Loss of vegetation, climate change, farming, overgrazing, and deforestation for fuel or construction materials are among the key factors that have exacerbated desertification.
Desertification and drought are global environmental problems that affect all regions of the world and require joint action by the international community to address them.
Increased desertification intensifies the amount of sand and dust that can be swept up by the wind and eventually leads to dust storms with negative impacts on the weather, and in turn worsens desertification.
Investing in sustainable land and water management, improved drought preparedness, and community-led restoration can help secure the rangelands and the people who depend on them.
According to the Wilderness Society, land restoration is more than a solution to environmental problems. It is an opportunity to achieve countless benefits, including job creation, improved food and water security, and a more resilient economy.
As we approach 2030, the need for large-scale land restoration becomes more critical. Land restoration means creating a future where economies are strong, ecosystems thrive, and communities are safe.
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 rangelands by investing in sustainable land and water management, strengthening governance, improving drought preparedness and supporting community-led restoration efforts.
Desertification, along with climate change and the loss of biodiversity, was identified as the greatest challenges to sustainable development during the Rio Earth Summit in 1992.
Two years later, the General Assembly established the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), a legally binding international agreement linking environment and development to sustainable land management, and declared 17 June “World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought”. This day, also known as “Desertification and Drought Day”, is observed every year to promote public awareness of international efforts to combat desertification.
Every year, the day focuses on a specific theme; this year’s theme is ‘Rangelands: Recognize. Respect. Restore’, which highlights the need for the restoration of rangelands.
Coinciding with the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists, the 2026 global observance of Desertification and Drought Day draws attention to the need to recognize and value rangelands for the critical functions they provide, respect the traditional stewards who have cared for them for generations, and restore degraded landscapes to secure livelihoods and ecosystem services.
Restoring rangelands
Under the country’s Seventh National Development Plan (2023-2027), the Natural Resources and Watershed Management Organization has set a target of restoring 23 million hectares of rangelands.
So far, the organization has managed to restore more than seven million hectares, IRIB quoted Hassan Vahid, an official with the Natural Resources and Watershed Management Organization, as saying.
“Some 14 million hectares of the country’s land are susceptible to wind erosion. To address the problem, the country has established 1.4 million hectares of man-made forests, and implemented mulching,” he said.
Referring to transboundary sand and dust storms, the official highlighted the significance of regional diplomacy to combat eight active dust hotspots in neighboring countries like Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kuwait, and Qatar.
The official went on to say that overexploitation of nature, excessive water consumption, and the implementation of some development projects are among the main factors that exacerbate desertification.
MT/MG
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