UNCCD COP17 – Grounding the Rio Conventions: Sustainable Land Management as a Pathway to Methane Mitigation

UNCCD COP17
Grounding the Rio Conventions: Sustainable Land Management as a Pathway to Methane Mitigation
21 August | 13:00 – 14:00 | TNC Pavillion
Organised by Ambition Loop

Event overview

Rangeland grazing systems can account for up to 70% of rangeland farms’ methane emissions, but data on different production systems, particularly mobile pastoralism, remains limited. This gap points to concrete co-benefits available now through improved feed digestibility, grazing management, and herd health. Similar opportunities also exist across other production systems, including sustainable rice production.

This moderated discussion, combining expert presentations with facilitated audience contributions, will explore practices that deliver methane co-benefits through sustainable rangeland management, and examine UNCCD’s role in leading this discussion among the Rio Conventions.Outputs will be compiled in a two pager with recommendations to be shared with stakeholders to feed into COP18 negotiations.

Objectives and Key Messages

• Build shared language between land degradation and methane, which are often siloed agendas
• Surface practitioner and research perspectives on rangeland livestock management practices that can deliver methane co-benefits, while identifying where evidence gaps remain
• Identify entry points for methane to be reflected in UNCCD process outcomes, decisions, or side declarations
• Deliverable: a set of recommendations to be shared with stakeholders to feed into COP18 negotiations

This session will bring together public, private, academia, civil society and practitioner voices to explore how sustainable practices across production systems can deliver methane emissions reduction as a co-benefit, and to make the case for UNCCD’s leadership on agricultural methane.

Click here to view more photos

How can sustainable land management help reduce methane emissions while strengthening the resilience of pastoralist communities?

At UNCCD COP17 in Ulaanbaatar, Irish Baguilat, AFA Coordinator for Women Farmer’s Agenda, and Altantuya Tseden-ish, President of NAMAC, joined experts and practitioners at the side event “Grounding the Rio Conventions: Sustainable Land Management as a Pathway to Methane Mitigation,” organised by Ambition Loop.

The discussion explored how sustainable practices across livestock and other production systems can deliver methane reduction as a co-benefit, from improved feed digestibility and grazing management to better herd health and sustainable rice production.

For pastoralist communities, particularly mobile pastoralists, there is an urgent need to strengthen the evidence and bring their experiences and perspectives into global climate and land discussions.

The session also highlighted the importance of breaking down silos between land degradation and methane mitigation and identifying practical entry points for methane action within the UNCCD process.