Global change – including population growth, urbanization, land use change and climate change – is increasingly disturbing the equilibrium of the world’s drylands. Growing numbers of people are dependent on natural resources for their survival, against a background of advancing land degradation, weakened traditional governance and the intensified and unsustainable extraction of key resources, threatening the long-term viability of drylands. Instead of being considered as assets and caretakers of their lands, local communities are often blamed for land degradation, accused of overgrazing and deforestation, and are increasingly being evicted and marginalized from the lands that support their livelihoods. Worrisome as this situation is, the natural resources of drylands have proven to be stronger than expected, and local management wiser and more resilient than previously considered. The FAO 2018 report, World Livestock: Transforming the livestock sector through the Sustainable Development Goals, shows that converting other ecosystems, especially forests, to produce fodder will have serious repercussions for people and the environment. This is particularly significant as over a third of the world’s cropland is being used to grow animal feed (FAO, 2018; 2020; Mottet et al., 2017). While under- and overgrazing can lead to desertification, shrub encroachment and lower biodiversity levels, the rehabilitation of degraded lands and creation of expansive agroforestry with better grazing management can boost agricultural productivity, increasing useable surfaces by another billion hectares