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.

At GLF Africa 2026 in Nairobi, conversations around restoration repeatedly returned to one central idea: healthy rangelands cannot exist without the people who know, manage, and live within them.

Held at the CIFOR-ICRAF campus during the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists (IYRP 2026), the conference brought together researchers, pastoralist leaders, restoration practitioners, policymakers, and youth advocates to explore the future of Africa’s landscapes in the face of climate uncertainty, biodiversity loss, and land degradation.