Rio Conventions

Integrating grasslands into India’s national climate plans

The article argues that global and national climate policies remain overly focused on forests while neglecting grasslands, despite their critical role as stable carbon sinks, biodiversity reservoirs, and livelihood systems for indigenous and pastoral communities. It highlights how institutional silos between climate, biodiversity, and land-degradation frameworks have marginalised grasslands, using examples from Australia, Brazil’s Cerrado, and India. The piece calls for integrating grasslands into national climate plans and NDCs, recognising community land rights, and building coordination among UN bodies to ensure effective, science-based, and socially just climate action.