We hardly need to be reminded that we are living in unprecedented times. Yet year upon year, our members face political and social persecution combined with tremendous pressures on their land that make it more difficult to protect, nurture, and live from it. Change can be a very long and difficult road, and the challenges we face are complex and deeply entrenched.

We came into this triennium already knowing that land inequality is growing in most countries, and faster than expected. We now face an existential threat that is deepening this inequality. Pressures on land provoked by the climate crisis are creating both actual and metaphorical firestorms, torching the structures that underpin civic unity. Such pressures further erode sustainable and locally-led food systems, undermining food security and livelihoods, and provoking dispossession at an alarming scale.

These crises call for a reset. With the power of our network behind us, we’re taking on the challenge for system change.

In this report, you will read inspiring examples from our members. You will meet people who are healing our ecosystems with their hands and using their deep knowledge to nurture soils and sustain the world’s remaining agrobiodiversity, shaping the food systems of tomorrow.

You will read stories on how we’re sharpening our defenses against repression and attacks that members of our network face by leveraging people’s data to demand accountability, shedding light on what otherwise may be unseen. By creating space and amplifying our members’ voices, we are able together to create alternative policies and politics, from local to global levels.

These stories – our collective achievements – form the bedrock of an equitable future – a tomorrow in which local communities have the tools they need to uphold democracy and defend themselves against authoritarianism, despotism, ecosystem destruction, and other forms of historically-entrenched oppression. 

We know that the path to change can be difficult, and we do not always get everything right. Yet as we close 2022-2024 and embark on the next triennium, we are energised by how far we’ve come – a great deal thanks to our diversity, unity, and reach. Together, we stand firm in the knowledge that the road out of inequality, broken food systems, declining democracy, and the climate and nature crises must be built on land rights for the people who live on and from the land. This is the foundation of the just and resilient future we will continue building together.