Despite growing interest in sustainable rangeland management and restoration, there is currently no widely accepted framework for monitoring ecological outcomes across rangeland systems. Existing approaches vary considerably in the indicators used, methods applied, and scales of assessment, making it difficult to compare results, aggregate data, or demonstrate progress consistently across landscapes and regions. These challenges are particularly apparent in rangelands, where high spatial and temporal variability in ecological conditions, climatic fluctuations, and diverse management systems can complicate the interpretation of ecological change. While rangeland resilience also includes important social, cultural and economic dimensions, a key gap currently lies in the measurement of biophysical changes across rangeland landscapes.

This framework responds to that need by defining a harmonised set of indicators of rangeland health and associated methodological principles that enable comparability across regions while allowing flexibility for adaptation to local contexts.

Rangelands cover more than half the planet’s land surface and sustain the livelihoods, either directly or indirectly, of billions of people. Yet, an estimated 40–50% of these systems show signs of degradation, manifesting as soil erosion, woody encroachment, and declining forage productivity, placing global food security, climate goals, and local livelihoods at risk. While several monitoring frameworks and tools to measure rangeland condition exist, most remain fragmented, narrow in scope, and difficult to compare across projects, sectors, or regions. A credible, global monitoring framework is needed to guide investment, anchor emerging livestock value-chain standards, and track progress toward international restoration targets.

This review synthesizes rangeland monitoring insights from four key source domains: (i) twelve widely used field-based frameworks, (ii) fourteen sustainability standards with mandated landscape monitoring components, (iii) five Earthobservation (EO) platforms that report on rangeland indicators; and (iv) two citizen science mobile applications. We integrate these findings with a review of 62 peer-reviewed studies, along with the insights and recommendations from a multi-stakeholder consultation workshop convened in Nairobi in October 2024.

The project STELARR (Sustainable Investments in Large-Scale Rangeland Restoration) is supporting the development of a global rangelands monitoring framework as a component of a global rangelands standard that will be awarded to rangelands products produced sustainably and according to a set of ecological, environmental, social and animal welfare standards. This global rangelands standard development is being led by the Sustainable Fibre Alliance, and in future will be applied and overseen by a Rangelands Stewardship Council in establishment. The standard will incentivize good land management and investments (including private sector investments) in this. ICRAF is leading the development of the global rangelands monitoring framework working with the Sustainable Fibre Alliance and other partners.

Download the presentation from Leigh Winowiecki, Aida Bargues Tobella, Christina Magaju and Tor-G Vagen in a joint side event at the Swidish International Water Institute’s World Water Week (SIWI WWW) in August 2023.

The 2022 Restoration Barometer Report demonstrates the progress that reporting countries have made on their restoration targets during the as of the 2021-2022 reporting period.