Dr. Tolbert Thomas Jallah Jr., Executive Director of the Faith & Justice Network (FJN), is attending the Second International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development+20 (ICARRD+20) in Colombia.

The global conference brings together governments, rural organizations, civil society groups, and other key stakeholders to deliberate on:

Equity in land access, Rural justice, Agrarian reform

Sustainable rural development Dr. Jallah’s participation reflects FJN’s commitment to advancing land equity, social justice, and sustainable development both locally and globally. On February 27, 2026, at the sidelines of the International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ICARRD+20) in Cartagena, Colombia, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) delivered a compelling call to re-center global land governance around collective tenure systems and agroecology.

Speaking during the gathering, AFSA emphasized that collective land tenure systems—where land is owned, managed, or governed by communities rather than individuals—are essential for protecting biodiversity, strengthening climate resilience, and safeguarding cultural heritage.

Collective Tenure: A Stewardship Ethic Rooted in Faith and Culture

AFSA underscored that for many African faith and Indigenous communities, land is not a commodity to be traded, but an ancestral heritage held in trust for future generations. This stewardship ethic encourages:

• Sustainable harvesting

• Forest conservation

• Soil protection

By contrast, privatized land regimes often incentivize short-term profit maximization through logging, monocropping, and land speculation—practices that accelerate biodiversity loss and ecological degradation.

Customary Governance as Conservation Framework

AFSA highlighted that collective systems frequently operate under customary laws that function as effective conservation mechanisms, including:

• Rotational farming

• Protection of sacred forests

• Seasonal restrictions on hunting and fishing

Such traditional governance systems allow communities to manage forests, wetlands, and grazing lands holistically. Rather than fragmenting landscapes into fenced parcels, collective tenure maintains ecological connectivity across territories.

Evidence from multiple African contexts shows that Indigenous and community-managed lands often experience lower deforestation rates than even state-protected areas—demonstrating that conservation is strongest where communities have secure rights and cultural ties to their land.

Bridging Food Sovereignty and Biodiversity Through Agroecology

AFSA stressed that agroecology must be central—not peripheral—to future land governance frameworks.

Agroecology integrates crops, trees, livestock, and local knowledge into diversified food systems. This approach:

• Reduces reliance on chemical inputs

• Protects soil organisms

• Safeguards water systems

• Enhances nutritional diversity

By aligning food production with ecological processes, agroecology becomes the operational arm of biodiversity protection.

Climate Resilience in an Era of Uncertainty

In the face of intensifying droughts and floods due to climate change, agroecological systems provide resilience through:

• Crop diversity

• Agroforestry

• Soil regeneration

These practices strengthen carbon sequestration while restoring degraded landscapes, ensuring both environmental sustainability and food security.

A New Vision for Land Governance

AFSA’s advocacy campaign calls for transformative policy shifts that:

• Legally recognize customary land rights

• Provide incentives for regenerative agricultural practices

• Redirect subsidies away from industrial monocultures

• Integrate agroecology into national agricultural policies

The organization urged policymakers to move beyond narrow yield-per-hectare metrics and instead prioritize:

• Ecosystem health

• Nutritional diversity

• Social equity

• Carbon sequestration

A Governance Philosophy for the Future

In closing, AFSA affirmed that agroecology is not merely a farming technique—it is a governance philosophy. It redefines land as a living system rather than a production unit.

If collective tenure protects biodiversity structurally, agroecology operationalizes that protection in practice.

The message from Cartagena was clear: Protect our Land. Restore our Soil.