At UNCCD COP17 in Ulaanbaatar, the Rangeland Stewardship Council launched Version 0.2 of the Global Rangelands Standard — the Foundation Standard — marking an important step towards a shared global framework for responsible stewardship of the world’s rangelands.
The launch on 26 August brought together pastoralists, governments, international organisations, technical experts and partners at a significant moment for the global rangelands community.
With 2026 marking the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists (IYRP), the discussion looked beyond recognition of the importance of rangelands to a more practical challenge: how can responsible stewardship be supported, demonstrated and recognised across the extraordinary diversity of rangeland systems worldwide?
That challenge has been at the heart of the Global Rangelands Standard from the outset.
Rangelands support biodiversity and climate resilience, underpin food and fibre systems, and sustain the livelihoods, cultures and knowledge of communities around the world. Yet approaches to defining, measuring and recognising responsible stewardship remain fragmented.
The Foundation Standard provides a common global basis for addressing this gap — creating a stronger connection between stewardship on the ground and the policy, evidence, markets and investment systems capable of recognising and supporting it.
Built around the Realities of Rangelands
A standard for rangelands has to begin with a simple reality: rangelands are not uniform.
They encompass mobile pastoral and transhumant systems, ranching and settled livestock production. Land may be privately owned, communally managed, held through customary tenure or governed through combinations of formal and traditional systems. Access to pasture and water can shift with the seasons, and responsibility for managing resources may be shared across households, communities and entire landscapes.
The Global Rangelands Standard has been designed with this diversity at its core.
Its six Principles cover:
- Effective Management
- Responsible Land Governance and Tenure
- Land Management and Ecosystem Health
- Resilient Livelihoods
- Rights, Equity and Inclusion
- Animal Welfare
Together, they establish a common level of ambition for responsible stewardship while allowing application to respond to local ecological, cultural, legal and governance conditions.
As RSC Founder Una Jones said during the launch:
“The balance we are seeking is therefore a strong global foundation with locally designed application.”
That balance is critical. A global Standard needs enough consistency to create credibility and confidence, but it also needs to work in landscapes where governance, mobility, evidence and management may look very different from one place to another.
The aim is therefore not uniformity. It is a common foundation that can accommodate locally relevant indicators, knowledge and management approaches while maintaining clear principles, outcomes and safeguards.
A Standard Shaped through Dialogue
The launch at COP17 represented the culmination of several years of consultation, technical review and refinement — and the beginning of the next phase of development.
Pastoralists and rangeland organisations, scientists and technical experts, industry, civil society, conservation organisations and international institutions have contributed to the process. Their input has helped shape the Standard around issues fundamental to rangeland stewardship, including communal and customary tenure, mobility, shared resources, pastoralists’ knowledge, biodiversity, climate resilience, adaptive management and animal welfare.
The Global Rangelands Standard is an RSC-led initiative, developed with the support of the UNCCD, the Sustainable Fibre Alliance, and through the GEF-funded STELARR Project, which is implemented by IUCN and executed by ILRI and partners.
That collaboration was visible at COP17. The launch was moderated by Fiona Flintan, STELARR Project Lead and RSC Trustee, and brought together contributions from Stewart Maginnis, Deputy Director General of IUCN; Jean-Marc Sinnassamy, Senior Environmental Specialist at GEF; and Louise Baker, Managing Director of the Global Mechanism at UNCCD. The discussion also included representation from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture, Botswana’s Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources Conservation and Tourism, and Mongolia’s pastoralist community.
Together, these perspectives moved the conversation beyond what a global Standard should contain to the more important question of how it can work in practice.
What does good stewardship look like on the ground?
That question came into particularly sharp focus through the contribution of Altansukh Tumee, Mongolian Pastoralist Group Leader.
Speaking from the experience of Mongolian herders, he emphasised that responsible pasture management should be rooted in the knowledge and experience of the people who use the land:
“When implementing the rangeland standard, it is appropriate to base it on the traditions of the local people and their experience in rangeland use.”
His description of stewardship was practical and interconnected: herders, cooperatives and local associations identifying priorities together; planning pasture use and seasonal movements; protecting water sources and wildlife; preparing hay and feed; maintaining reserve grazing areas; improving livestock management; and addressing waste.
It is through examples such as these that the ambition of the Foundation Standard becomes tangible.
The Standard is designed so that management areas do not have to conform to fixed property boundaries. They may encompass seasonal and mobile grazing areas and land that is shared or overlapping. Participatory mapping, seasonal calendars and pastoralists’ knowledge can help reflect how landscapes are actually accessed, managed and governed.
In other words, the framework is intended to respond to the realities of rangelands rather than requiring rangeland systems to reshape themselves to fit the Standard.
Carrying the Momentum of IYRP Beyond 2026
The launch also looked to the wider opportunity created by the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists.
Enrique Michaud, Co-Chair of the Global Alliance for Rangelands and Pastoralists, brought the perspective of the wider pastoralist movement to the discussion, including the question of how the visibility generated through IYRP can be sustained beyond 2026 and translated into longer-term cooperation and action.
A central part of that challenge is ensuring that pastoralist organisations remain directly involved as the Standard progresses towards practical application.
Recognition alone will not secure the future of rangelands.
IYRP and COP17 have helped place rangelands more firmly on the international agenda. The task now is to convert that visibility into lasting frameworks, partnerships and resources capable of supporting responsible stewardship over the longer term.
The Foundation Standard offers one way of turning that momentum into something more durable.
Connecting Stewardship with Support, Markets and Finance
Defining responsible stewardship is only part of the task. Creating the conditions that enable it is equally important.
Future application of the Standard will require complementary roles across governments, pastoralist and producer organisations, technical partners, civil society, finance institutions, businesses and market actors.
Governments can help align implementation with national priorities and institutions. Pastoralist and producer organisations must remain central to governance, design and learning. Technical partners can help strengthen monitoring and evidence. Finance partners can support readiness, implementation and restoration, while businesses and market actors can create greater recognition and demand for responsibly produced rangeland products.
For this reason, the Global Rangelands Standard has been conceived as more than a certification framework.
It has the potential to support benchmarking and alignment with other sustainability systems, provide a common basis for monitoring and landscape programmes, and contribute to responsible sourcing, policy and investment frameworks.
Its longer-term value lies in creating a stronger bridge between good stewardship on the ground and the systems capable of recognising, valuing and supporting it.
Building from the Foundation Standard
The launch at COP17 gives this next phase a clear starting point.
Further technical review and stakeholder engagement will continue alongside the development of country-level guidance, implementation tools, species-specific animal welfare annexes, and the monitoring and assurance systems needed for credible application. These elements will, in turn, provide the basis for future pilot testing across different rangeland systems, landscapes and value chains.
The value of those pilots will lie in what they allow us to learn: whether the requirements are clear and proportionate; how they work across different tenure and governance systems; what kinds of evidence are practical and credible; how different knowledge systems can contribute to monitoring and decision-making; and where the framework needs to evolve further.
Ultimately, the ambition is larger than the Standard itself. It is about what a shared global framework can help enable: healthier and more resilient rangelands, stronger livelihoods, greater recognition for responsible stewardship, and decisions informed by both evidence and the knowledge of the people who live and work in these landscapes.
The Foundation Standard gives the global rangelands community a common basis from which to move that ambition forward.
Explore the Global Rangelands Standard
Version 0.2 of the Global Rangelands Standard — the Foundation Standard — is now available through the Rangeland Stewardship Council website.
The High-Level Summary provides an accessible introduction to the Standard, its purpose, scope and six Principles, while the full Foundation Standard sets out its complete Principles, Themes, Requirements and supporting guidance.
View the High-Level Summary
View the Full Foundation Standard
RSC welcomes feedback and engagement from pastoralists and other rangeland users, governments, technical and scientific partners, civil society, businesses, finance and market actors, and potential pilot partners as the next phase of practical application and learning begins.
