Grasslands and Climate Change
Context:
The United Nations has declared 2026 as the 'International Year for Rangelands and Pastoralists'.
Amidst this, scientists and civil society are urging the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to broaden its climate goals to explicitly include grasslands and savannahs, moving beyond the current forest-centric approach.
Role of Grasslands:
It covers nearly 40% of the Earth’s land surface and support millions of pastoralists and indigenous communities.
Research indicates that grasslands and savannahs are effective carbon sinks.
They regulate hydrological cycles and conserve biodiversity.
Unlike forests, which have dominated global climate negotiations, grasslands store significant amounts of carbon underground, making them resilient to wildfires and droughts.
A 2022 open letter published in Science by researchers from Tanzania, Zambia, the UK, and others criticized the neglect of non-forest biomes in climate pacts.
They argue that ignoring these ecosystems undermines global mitigation efforts.
Experts, including researchers from Brazil, advocate for an "Ecosystem-Based Approach."
This strategy treats open ecosystems as vital adaptation assets and calls for their inclusion in Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).
Threats to Grasslands:
Grasslands are one of the most threatened ecosystems in the world.
The biome has suffered rapid habitat loss due to agriculture, conversion to forests and plantations, the spread of invasive species, and the extraction of fossil fuels.
In addition, many governments have suppressed indigenous and local land management techniques such as controlled fires and grazing, leaving forest land to burn during wildfires with greater intensity and to release more carbon into the atmosphere as forests degraded