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From alpine ponds in Kashmir to sacred orans in Rajasthan, to the steppes of Mongolia and the plains of East Africa, rangelands are being restored in different ways by pastoralists and other local communities who have inhabited these lands for generations. At the UNCCD COP17 event on "Rangeland Awards and Best Practices of Community on Rangeland Management and Pastoralism," KINNAPA Development Programme was honoured as Tanzania's sole recipient of the Rangeland Restoration Award 2026.
A herder protecting grazing routes. A village reclaiming its charagah (grazing land). Women restoring pastureland. An officer changing policy. These were some of the stories that took centre stage at the awards event, held as part of the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists (IYRP) 2026. KINNAPA's work with Maasai pastoralist communities in Kiteto District now stands among them.
Honouring herders, villages, women's groups and officials whose everyday practices restore and govern rangelands.
Marking the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists by centring knowledge systems that have sustained these landscapes for generations.
Bringing 20 awardees from 6 countries together at UNCCD COP17 to exchange approaches to grazing governance and land restoration.
Strengthening the IYRP Global and South Asia Regional Alliance as a lasting network for rangeland restoration beyond 2026.
The Rangeland Restoration Awards 2026 were organised by the IYRP Global and South Asia Regional Alliance groups together with SEVA, ILRI, FES, DHAN Foundation, ATREE, FAO and the Honeybee Network, drawing entries from pastoralist and rangeland communities across the globe.
KINNAPA was honoured for its long-standing work with Maasai pastoralist communities to protect grazing routes, restore degraded rangeland, and strengthen community-based natural resource governance in Kiteto District, Manyara Region — work rooted in the same pastoralist knowledge systems the IYRP was created to champion.
Nine of the twenty awardees are from India. The remaining eleven, including KINNAPA, span Mongolia, China, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Ireland — a reflection of how widely community-led rangeland restoration is being practised and recognised.
Rangelands cover nearly half the world's land surface, and the people who steward them — herders, pastoralist women, village land councils — are its most consistent restorers. The Rangeland Restoration Awards 2026 exist to put their work, including KINNAPA's in Kiteto, on the global record.
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