Get reliable rangeland science

Forests and agrosilvopastoral systems in drylands contribute to landscape resilience and environmental sustainability. The y support species adapted to harsh ecological conditions and provide essential goods and ecosystem services, as well as enhanced resilience for dryland communities. When sustainably managed, they can alleviate poverty, ensure food security and improve livelihoods worldwide. Drylands and rangelands are home to over 2 billion people globally but face significant challenges, including land conversion, climate change, unsustainable practices and poorly designed restoration programmes. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Drylands Programme, under the mandate of the Committee on Forestry Working Group on Dryland Forests and Agrosilvopastoral Systems (COFO WG), addresses these challenges by promoting good practices for the sustainable management, protection and restoration of drylands. The only subsidiary body of the Committee on Forestry working specifically on dryland forests, the COFO WG is fostering resilient dryland ecosystems by training experts to drive transformative policymaking and management through its Drylands Summer School initiative, which builds a global community of practice through its participatory training programmes. The Dryland School initiative explores transformative approaches to building climate-resilient dryland systems. The inaugural Drylands Summer School, held in Amman, Jordan, in 2023, equipped 22 participants from diverse dryland regions with tools to enhance resilience, focusing on context-specific solutions and monitoring progress through cross-cutting indicators. The second edition, hosted at the CIFOR-ICRAF (Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry) Campus in Nairobi, Kenya, on 12 –15 September 2024, expanded this effort with an enriched curriculum and a field trip to showcase practical applications of monitoring drylands and agrosilvopastoral systems towards climate change and sustainability.