Distinguished partners, colleagues, members of our farming communities, ladies and gentlemen
Our land is speaking. The question is whether we are listening.
Across our region, farmers are watching rains that once came reliably now arrive late — or not at all. Soils that fed generations are thinning. Rivers that gave communities life are narrowing. This is not a distant warning. This is the daily reality of our people — and it demands our urgent, collective response.
Today, on World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought, we unite under the global theme: Rangelands: Recognize. Respect. Restore. While rangelands may not dominate the landscape of every Caribbean island, this theme speaks directly to us — because from the Rupununi and Sipaliwini savannas of Guyana and Suriname, to the Yalbac and coastal savannas of Belize, our region holds vast living ecosystems that sustain livelihoods, anchor biodiversity, and regulate the water and carbon cycles we all depend upon.
Rangelands are not empty spaces. They are not marginal land. They are the living skin of our earth — and when we wound them, we wound ourselves.
Globally, rangelands cover more than half of the Earth’s terrestrial surface. They feed hundreds of millions of people, store enormous reserves of carbon, and regulate water across continents. And yet they are under siege — from climate change, from deforestation, from unsustainable land use, from prolonged drought. From our coastlands to our mountaintops, no ecosystem is untouched. Changing rainfall patterns, declining soil fertility, accelerating erosion, and falling agricultural yields are threatening the food and water security of our communities today — and the inheritance of our children tomorrow.
This is why today is not merely an observance. It is a call to conscience. A call to every leader, every policymaker, every farmer, and every citizen to treat our land not as a resource to be extracted — but as a living partner to be protected.
To Recognize means acknowledging the full value of our rangelands and soils — not only their economic worth, but their cultural, ecological, and spiritual significance to the communities who have stewarded them for generations.
To Respect means honoring the people — our farmers, our land managers, our indigenous communities — who work this land every day. Their knowledge is not anecdotal; it is irreplaceable. Their voices must be at the center of every policy decision we make.
To Restore means taking decisive, sustained action to heal degraded lands. It means implementing sustainable land and soil management practices that give back more than we take — so that future generations inherit ecosystems capable of feeding them, sheltering them, and protecting them from a changing climate.
In our region, this work is already underway. Through the Caribbean SIDS SOILCARE Programme — funded by the Global Environment Facility and implemented with the support of the Food and Agriculture Organization — we are promoting sustainable land management, land degradation neutrality, and the restoration of degraded lands across 14 countries. This is not a project on paper. It is real action, on real ground, for real communities. We are grateful to every minister, focal point, funding partner, and implementing organization who has made this possible.
As we also look ahead to COP17 — to be held in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, in August 2026 — I urge our Caribbean policymakers and national focal points to carry our stories to the world stage. Tell the story of our farmers. Tell the story of our soils. Advocate with conviction for land degradation in SIDS to be placed where it belongs: at the very center of our global climate resilience agenda.
The land does not belong only to those alive today. We hold it in trust — for those who came before us, and for those who will come after.
Colleagues, the responsibility is shared — but it begins with each of us. Recognize the value of what we have. Respect those who protect it. And restore, with urgency and with purpose, what has been lost.
Our land is still speaking. Let us prove, today and every day, that we are listening.
Thank you.
