Reversing climate change needs help from stewards of the land

Author, Alexander Müller IISD photo

By Alexander Müller 

Across the vast rangelands of West Africa, pastoralist farmers have long kept herds of cattle, sheep and goats, but the livestock, and herders incomes, are starting to decrease in many areas. 

Drought, rising population pressure and inadequate management have contributed to widespread depletion of soils – with nutrients being sucked out of the earth. 

Largely gone, too, is the land’s ability to hold large amounts of carbon. It’s no small loss. The beaten-down land here and around the world, along with degraded farmland, are an open wound not only because of the loss of productive land but also because it is a lost opportunity to slow and reverse climate change.