On 15 October 2025, the World Food Forum Week in Rome brought youth and Indigenous voices to the forefront of global land restoration efforts. Held at the Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) headquarters, the sessions advanced joint work with the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) on new guidance titled “Avoiding, Reducing and Reversing Land and Soil Degradation of Agricultural Lands.”

The guidance was requested by governments at the 16th Conference of the Parties to the UNCCD  (COP16), held in Riyadh in December 2024. It will be formally presented at the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) in Mongolia, from 17 to 28 August 2026.

A joint FAO-UNCCD session on Biocentric Restoration showcased how Indigenous communities are using their ancestral knowledge and practices to sustain food systems and restore degraded land. Representatives from the Indigenous Peoples’ Knowledge Hub explained how their stewardship is a direct line to healthier soils and more resilient ecosystems.

Speakers called for restoration efforts to prioritize people and their rights and formally integrate traditional knowledge. They emphasized that lasting progress requires action at both the local and landscape levels, with customary governance systems forming the foundation for restoring and managing land.

Looking ahead, panelists made it clear: Indigenous voices must be central to policymaking.

Complementing this dialogue, the Youth Assembly Session on Desertification, Land Degradation and Drought (DLDD) featured young leaders from across the globe sharing their experiences to shape the new guidance. From Indigenous youth to pastoralists and young scientists, the message was the same: ”young people must be co-designers of policy, not just beneficiaries.”

Discussions revealed that the lack of secure land rights remains a major barrier for rural communities. Speakers detailed how drought disproportionately impacts women and girls—for instance, a lack of water for personal hygiene can force women and girls to miss school and abandon farm work. The panelists also urged for stronger data, disaggregated by gender and age, to ensure fair and effective responses.

The dialogue further highlighted how young innovators are using technology—from remote sensing to machine learning—to tackle land and soil degradation. Participants agreed that restoring farmland takes more than ideas alone: it needs secure land rights, access to resources, training opportunities, supportive policies and targeted investment.

Together, the two sessions showed that youth and Indigenous perspectives are essential for creating fair and practical ways to restore farmland and ecosystems in the face of climate change and biodiversity loss.