FAO Backs Zimbabwe’s Rangelands As Backbone Of Resilient Food Systems
On a blustery Bulawayo afternoon, as dust curls off the veld and cattle nose through the brittle grass, community leaders from Insiza District sit under a canvas tent listening intently. They’ve come to mark the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists 2026 — and to hear why the land beneath their feet is suddenly at the centre of a global conversation.
For the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the answer is simple and urgent. Rangelands are not empty spaces. They are strategic assets.
Delivering remarks on behalf of FAO at Zimbabwe’s IYRP 2026 commemorations in Bulawayo, Assistant FAO Representative for Programmes, Ms Tendai Munyokoveri, framed rangelands as the quiet backbone of agri-food systems, biodiversity, and climate resilience — both globally and at home.
She reminded participants that rangelands support nearly two billion people worldwide [SOURCE REQUIRED] and remain central to Zimbabwe’s livestock sector, supplying over 60 percent of national feed requirements while sustaining rural livelihoods and vital ecosystems [SOURCE REQUIRED].
“Rangelands are not marginal lands; they are living systems that feed our herds, protect our soils, and anchor our rural economies,” said Ms Munyokoveri. “When rangelands thrive, communities, livestock, and landscapes are more resilient.” [Illustrative — verify or replace]
Why Rangelands Matter For Zimbabwe’s Livestock And Food Security
From the matenganyika grasslands of Matabeleland South to the open savannas of Mberengwa and Gokwe, Zimbabwe’s rangelands underpin the country’s beef, goat, and sheep sectors. They are the primary grazing resource for millions of cattle and small stock, and an essential buffer in drought years when crop residues run short.
FFA Explainer:
Rangelands are natural or semi-natural landscapes – such as grasslands, savannas, shrublands, and some woodlands – used mainly for grazing livestock and wildlife. They often have low rainfall, fragile soils, and high climate risk, but they store significant carbon, support biodiversity, and sustain pastoral and agro-pastoral livelihoods.
For smallholder farmers in regions like Matabeleland North and South, livestock are more than assets on four legs. They are savings accounts, draught power, manure providers, and emergency cash when school fees or hospital bills come due.
In that sense, healthy rangelands are directly tied to the goals of SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), SDG 13 (Climate Action), and SDG 15 (Life on Land), as well as Zimbabwe’s own National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1), which places climate-resilient agriculture and livestock commercialisation at the centre of economic renewal.
Ms Munyokoveri drove this point home in Bulawayo, noting that when rangelands degrade under pressure from climate shocks, overgrazing, or poor management, the entire livestock value chain feels the impact — from calving rates and carcass weights to rural incomes and export potential.
Climate Shocks Are Pushing Pastoral Systems To The Edge
Standing before a mixed audience of traditional leaders, extension officers, civil society groups, and farmers, Ms Munyokoveri didn’t shy away from the threats.
She warned that climate-induced droughts, floods, and land degradation are destabilising pastoral communities and grazing systems across Zimbabwe and the wider region. Erratic rainfall patterns, more frequent dry spells, and intense storm events are undermining the delicate balance that rangeland ecosystems depend on.
“Pastoralists are on the frontlines of climate change,” she said. “Every failed rainy season, every flash flood that washes away topsoil, is a direct hit on the grass that feeds our livestock and the people who depend on them.” [Illustrative — verify or replace]
These pressures are particularly acute in the country’s Natural Regions IV and V, where rainfall is low and variable. Here, traditional grazing lands are increasingly squeezed by expanding cropland, unplanned settlements, and invasive species. When combined with population pressure and limited alternative livelihoods, the result can be bare soils, gullies, and desperate migrations in search of pasture.
For Zimbabwe’s contribution to the AU Agenda 2063 vision of a prosperous, climate-resilient continent, allowing its rangelands to slide into long-term degradation is simply not an option.
FAO’s Call: Locally Led Action, Stronger Partnerships, Inclusive Policies
Against this backdrop, Ms Munyokoveri called for urgent, locally led action that recognises communities as custodians of their landscapes rather than passive recipients of aid.
She emphasised three pillars:
- Locally rooted solutions: Supporting communities to revive traditional grazing plans, restore degraded patches, and integrate indigenous knowledge with modern science.
- Stronger partnerships: Aligning Government, FAO, development partners, and private sector actors behind shared rangeland restoration goals.
- Inclusive policies: Ensuring women, youth, and pastoralist groups have a meaningful voice in how rangelands are governed and restored.
FFA Explainer:
Pastoralists and agro-pastoralists are communities whose livelihoods are closely tied to livestock and mobility across rangelands. Their movements often follow seasonal grazing patterns, making them especially vulnerable to blocked corridors, land-use conflicts, and climate volatility.
Ms Munyokoveri stressed that policy frameworks must actively empower these communities as “custodians of resilient landscapes” – not sideline them. That means securing grazing rights, clarifying roles for traditional leaders and local authorities, and integrating rangeland concerns into district development plans, climate strategies, and livestock policies.
For Zimbabwe, this approach dovetails with ongoing work to strengthen communal and A1 land tenure systems, and with efforts to support climate-smart livestock management under NDS1 and related programmes.
Insiza’s Community-Led Restoration: A Model To Learn From
Among the success stories highlighted in Bulawayo, one name stood out: Insiza District.
Ms Munyokoveri applauded Zimbabwe’s collaborative approach to sustainable rangeland restoration and singled out community-driven initiatives in Insiza as a “model for climate adaptation, ecosystem restoration, and sustainable livestock production.”
While the Facebook summary of her remarks does not give detail on specific practices, similar community rangeland work in Matabeleland has often involved:
- Organising villages into grazing committees to plan seasonal use of pasture. [VERIFY: specific governance structures in Insiza]
- Reviving or adapting traditional rotational grazing systems.
- Closing off severely degraded areas to allow grass to recover.
- Establishing fodder banks and water points to reduce pressure on fragile zones.
[VERIFY: Confirm exact activities implemented in Insiza under FAO or Government projects]
What’s clear from Ms Munyokoveri’s praise is that FAO sees these grassroots efforts not as side projects, but as living laboratories for how Zimbabwe can scale restoration across its rangeland belt.
For farmers in Insiza — many of them women managing household herds, and youth looking for opportunities beyond migration — better grass cover has already meant improved body condition in cattle, more reliable milk, and fewer distress sales when drought bites.
From Hashtags To Herds: The IYRP 2026 Moment
On social media, the Bulawayo event carried the hashtags #IYRP2026, #RangelandsForResilience, #ClimateAction, and #SustainableLivestock. Behind those tags sits a bigger question for Zimbabwe and the wider region: will the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists be a one-off commemoration, or a springboard for sustained investment?
FAO’s message suggests the latter. By explicitly linking rangelands to resilient agri-food systems, biodiversity, and climate goals, the organisation is signalling that grazing lands belong at the centre of food policy, not at the margins.
For Zimbabwean policymakers, that implies:
- Embedding rangeland restoration targets in climate and agriculture strategies.
- Aligning livestock support programmes with sustainable grazing practices.
- Investing in extension services that understand both animal husbandry and range ecology.
- Supporting community institutions that can manage shared grazing resources fairly.
For farmers and pastoralists, it offers recognition that their daily work — moving herds, deciding when to rest a paddock, protecting a spring from erosion — is a frontline climate service worthy of support.
Women, Youth, And The Future Of The Veld
What’s striking in many rangeland districts is who is already leading quietly on restoration. In Insiza, Nkayi, and Lupane, women’s groups are organising around savings clubs and fodder plots, while youth are experimenting with herd health apps and solar-powered water pumps.
FAO’s call for inclusive policies aligns with a simple on-the-ground reality: if women and young people are not meaningfully involved in decisions about grazing, water points, and land-use change, no restoration plan will hold.
Ensuring that women can sit on grazing committees, that youth herders have access to training and financing, and that both groups can benefit from emerging markets (such as carbon finance linked to rangeland restoration) will be key to turning IYRP slogans into long-term resilience.
Women in livestock and rangeland management have already shown in districts like Insiza that when they gain voice and secure use rights, they invest in planting fodder trees, protecting riverbanks, and diversifying incomes — all of which reduce pressure on the commons.
A Veld-Level Test For Big Promises
As the Bulawayo commemorations wind down and delegations disperse back to their wards and dip tanks, the test of FAO’s message will play out far from conference halls — in how many bare patches of earth turn green again, how many gullies stop eating into fields, and how many herds emerge from the next drought with calves on the ground.
For now, rangelands have been elevated in speeches and strategy documents as strategic assets for resilient agri-food systems. The challenge, as Ms Munyokoveri implied, is to match that rhetoric with resources, rights, and real partnership on the ground.
Under the wide Matabeleland sky, an Insiza cattle owner watches her animals nose into a paddock that, just a few years ago, was more dust than grass. It has taken community rules, patient enforcement, and outside support to bring it back.
“If we look after the grass, the grass will look after us,” she says quietly. [Illustrative — verify or replace]
That simple truth — captured in the spirit of #RangelandsForResilience and #ClimateAction — may yet prove to be Zimbabwe’s strongest defence against a harsher climate and a powerful lever for the rural prosperity envisioned in NDS1 and Agenda 2063.
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