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Soil Health Takes Centre Stage at COP17: A Landmark Food Systems and Soil Health Day
27 August 2026, Ulaanbaatar | At UNCCD COP17 Mongolia, soil health was at the center of the agenda. It was present across negotiations, ministerial dialogues, side events, and the Action Agenda. The numbers give a sense of its scale: the Coalition of Action 4 Soil Health (CA4SH) network held 72 events alongside 90+ partners across the two weeks.
Healthy Soils, Resilient Food Systems: Bringing Soil Health to the Heart of Global Action at COP17
The Coalition of Action 4 Soil Health (CA4SH), Landscape Alliance (CIFOR-ICRAF), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), CGIAR Multifunctional Landscapes Science Program, WWF, and partners, convened senior leaders and partners at UNCCD COP17 Mongolia for a high-level dinner focused on a simple but critical message: healthy soils are fundamental to resilient food systems, healthy ecosystems and a more climate-resilient future.
Advancing Soil Data and Evidence for Rangeland Restoration, LDN Reporting and Decision Making
The session, “Advancing Soil Data and Evidence for Rangeland Restoration, LDN Reporting and Decision Making,” brought together perspectives on how soil information systems, harmonised monitoring approaches, open-data platforms and community-led monitoring can strengthen LDN reporting while making evidence more useful to practitioners, policymakers and investors.
Why Kenya's Rangelands Matter More Than Ever
Rangelands cover around 80% of Kenya's landmass, yet they are too often viewed through the lens of scarcity rather than the abundance of knowledge, resilience, and opportunity they hold.
Attending the National Conference on Rangelands and Pastoralism, held as part of the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists (IYRP 2026), was a timely reminder that these landscapes are not only central to Kenya's future, but also to global conversations on climate resilience, biodiversity, food security, and sustainable livelihoods.
Ba Jara Thaba (They Carry the Mountain)
For generations, the Basotho people have lived in partnership with their horses, navigating terrain too steep for roads and too wild for machines. Here, where the mountains determine the pace of life, horse and rider move as one carrying food, people, stories, and traditions between remote communities.
It is a relationship built on trust, not ownership.
Ba Jara Thaba—"They Carry the Mountain"—captures this enduring bond through the eyes of filmmaker Ramon Mellett, whose two-year journey into the heart of Semongkong reveals a world that remains remarkably untouched by modernity. Rather than documenting a sporting spectacle, the film lingers in the quieter moments: the stillness before the race, the soft exchange between rider and horse, the silence that follows the thunder of hooves across the highlands.
Beyond Soil Health: Learning from Living Rangelands
Those of us who spend our lives in rangelands rarely think simply in terms of soil. We think in terms of soils.
Every soil type reflects an ancient geological history. The soils beneath my feet were formed over thousands, sometimes millions, of years from volcanic ash, ancient basement gneisses, river deposits and the black cotton clays that characterise parts of northern Kenya. They are the inheritance of geology. Each possesses its own physical and chemical characteristics, its own capacity to hold water, cycle nutrients, and support life. Every soil has its own potential, and every soil interacts with particular plant communities. Healthy rangelands are therefore built not on one soil, but on the remarkable diversity of soils and the equally remarkable diversity of plants they support.
Kingdom in the Sky
Welcome to the Kingdom in the Sky: Lesotho, a landlocked country surrounded by South Africa. Every part of the country lies above 1,000 metres above sea level, with vast areas rising between 2,000 and 3,400 metres. Towering mountains, deep valleys, high-altitude grasslands, and wetlands define a landscape of striking beauty and ecological importance.
Learning on the Move: How Nomadic Education is Supporting Samburu Communities and Their Rangelands
What happens when a school follows the children instead of expecting children to leave their way of life behind?
In the rugged landscapes of northern Kenya, The Sarara Foundation (TSF) is helping answer that question through its innovative Nomadic Education Program. Designed around the realities of Samburu pastoralist life, the initiative is demonstrating that education and traditional livelihoods do not have to exist in conflict. In fact, they can strengthen one another.
Op-Ed | Towards scaling soil health, rangeland restoration, and achieving global goals: Bringing evidence to bear
Despite progress over the past five years, soil degradation is continuing to happen at alarming rates, with over 2.3 billion people experience moderate or severe food insecurity, globally. With over 40% of the Earth’s surface degraded, including about 50% of the world’s rangelands, concerted action is needed.
Business as usual is no longer an option.
On this the 2026 Desertification and Drought Day, which coincides with the start of the CA4SH five-year celebrations and the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists (IYRP), the theme of this year’s Desertification and Drought Day, Rangelands: Recognize. Respect. Restore., is more relevant than ever.
Read the Op-Ed from Dr Leigh Winowiecki