Climate finance’s forest-centric bias undermines global carbon sequestration potential in grasslands, shrublands, and savannas—ignoring Indigenous stewardship and local livelihoods
Original framing: “Massive carbon stocks in grasslands are ignored by climate finance” — Phys.org
Marginalised voices—particularly **pastoralist women, Indigenous rangers, and smallholder farmers**—are systematically excluded from climate finance discussions. For example, **Maasai women in Tanzania** manage **80% of household food security** through grassland-based agriculture but have **no representation in COP negotiations**. Similarly, **Indigenous rangers in the U.S. Great Plains** (e.g., *Lakota* fire ecologists) have **decades of data** on grassland health but are **funded by state agencies rather than global climate programs**. The **lack of women’s leadership** in climate policy is particularly stark: only **12% of climate negotiators** are women, yet women in pastoralist communities **control 40–50% of agricultural land** in Africa and Asia. Their knowledge of **soil health, water management, and drought-resistant crops** is critical but **systematically sidelined** in carbon markets.
The systemic erasure of grasslands in climate finance is not merely an oversight but a **structural consequence of colonial-era silvocentrism**, where forests were prioritized as 'noble' ecosystems while grasslands were dismissed as 'barren.
' This bias persists because climate finance is **governed by Western institutions** that replicate historical patterns of **land commodification**—from the **Roman deforestation** that led to soil collapse to the **U.S. Homestead Act**, which plowed under the Great Plains. The **trickster irony** here is that the very ecosystems we ignore (grasslands) are **the most resilient to climate change**—they store **more carbon than forests in dry regions**, regulate water flows for **1.6 billion people**, and provide **livelihoods for marginalised communities**. Yet policies like REDD+ **reinforce this bias** by funding forests while **undermining pastoralist land rights** in Africa and Asia. The path forward requires **three interlinked shifts**: first, **reforming climate finance to value grassland carbon at parity with forests**; second, **centering Indigenous and pastoralist knowledge** in policy design (e.g., *Maasai rotational grazing*, *Lakota fire ecology*); and third, **scaling regenerative practices** like **Holistic Management** through public-private partnerships. Without these changes, we risk **accelerating climate tipping points**—because the ecosystems we’ve ignored are the ones **most critical to stabilizing the planet.