[ASIA LAND FORUM 2020] ACHIEVING RESILIENT FOOD SYSTEMS AND ADAPTING TO CLIMATE CHANGE THROUGH RESTORING RANGELANDS AND INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ ANCESTRAL LANDS

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Rangelands are faced with increasingly erratic climates, rapidly increasing human populations in some countries and rapidly declining or even abandonment in others, and a fast pace of unsustainable land-use change. But in recent years, an increasing appreciation of the value of pastoralism and transhumance for maintaining healthy rangelands has led to innovative approaches and technologies for the sustainability of pastoralism. These landscapes and livelihoods need urgent attention from many sectors (e.g. agriculture, environment, health, education, trade) and many stakeholders (e.g. policymakers, herders, land managers, environmentalists, legislators, business people, scientists, civil society, youth, and women).

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and its short-term spread around the world is a new and major threat to the agriculture and natural resources sector. The current policy and legal environment do not address support for herder households and the production, export, and import of livestock products. Therefore, current agriculture and natural resource policies need to be reviewed and updated to integrate with national measures to improve COVID-19 risk management and resilience.

THE ROLE OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES IN PROTECTING OUR PLANET

In Asia, it is estimated to be more than 411 million people recognized to be indigenous peoples (IPs). They have developed their customary land use and tenure systems through generations of practices and experiences.

However, the pandemic has also disproportionately affected Indigenous Peoples (IPs) in almost every aspect of their lives, posing severe health and socioeconomic risks, exacerbating underlying structural inequalities and discrimination which need to be specifically addressed in the response to this crisis with further vigor.

Therefore, the restoration of unhindered access to land, territories, and resources is the sole solution to food resilience and sovereignty just as the IP’s way of sustainable use of forest resources is the checkmate for climate change.