Some current and upcoming events in Grassland Science

It is salutary to see the emerging importance being accorded to grasslands and rangelands as a sector that makes a quiet but vital contribution to the stability of Earth's climate systems, to global food security, directly supports some 10% of the world's population, and provides a range of ecosystem services from recreational opportunity through water supply to sewage disposal, supporting urban populations. Recognizing this, the United Nations General Assembly, at its 76th session, declared 2026 the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists (IYRP). This provides a twofold opportunity. First, to celebrate the diversity of cultures and local knowledge of the peoples whose livelihoods have traditionally been derived from rangelands, this United Nations initiative “calls for policies that secure pastoralists’ access to land and natural resources, support mobility, and promote customary and inclusive governance, while encouraging adequate investments in rangeland management, ecosystem restoration, animal health services, and equitable value chains.” (https://www.fao.org/rangelands-pastoralists-2026/about/en). Second, the IYRP provides incentive for initiatives to protect grasslands and rangelands such as the 17th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, to be hosted by Mongolia in Ulaanbaatar, from August 17 to 28, 2026. This event “will bring together delegates from 197 Parties, heads of state, ministers, representatives from international organizations, scientific communities, civil society, and the private sector to forge solutions to the interconnected challenges of desertification, land degradation, and drought.” (https://www.unccd.int/events/governing-bodies-meetings/unccd-cop17) In this issue of Grassland Research, we carry a perspective article by He (2026), recognizing IYRP and advocating the need for more sown grasslands in China. This event is to be held in Qingdao, China, from October 12 to 16, 2026 (https://conf.koushare.com/conf/iftbc2026/). The IFTBC follows on from two previous series of conferences: Molecular Breeding of Forage and Turf (MBFT) and the International Symposium of Forage Breeding (ISFB). The MBFT conference series was inaugurated with a meeting in Japan in 1998 and continued with conferences in Australia (2000); Texas, USA (2003); Aberystwyth, UK (2005); Hokkaido, Japan (2007); Buenos Aires, Argentina (2010); Salt Lake City, USA (2012); Istanbul, Turkey (2014); and Lanzhou, China (2016). The ISFB conference series began in Brazil in 2007, where the first three biennial conferences were held. The first outside Brazil was held in Melbourne, Australia, in 2013, and the 5th ISFB in Buenos Aires in 2015 was a joint meeting with the 10th MBFT conference. Combined meetings of the two conferences were again held in Florida (2019) and Brazil (2024). The homepage of IFTBC 2026 states, “We live at a time of unprecedented new discoveries, some of these expected to transform agri-bioscience and technology development for years to come. They are to offer a unique opportunity to improve grassland agriculture worldwide, providing the feed-base underpinning our livestock industries in a changing climate, and importantly also the amenity and quality of our urban environments and cities for people to improve their lives and their wellbeing. We cannot ignore these.” Attendees can be certain the speakers (who can be previewed at the above URL) will deliver stimulating and cutting-edge content, and that the conference will also be an opportunity for delegates visiting China for the first time to experience the technological and societal transformation that is modern China. The IGC has an even more auspicious history than the IFTBC with a first meeting in 1927 of 16 European Grassland Scientists in Leipzig (Allen et al., 2021). Held every 4 years, the event in recent times has attracted over 1000 delegates from more than 80 countries and become a veritable who's who of international grassland scientists. As an early-career researcher in the 1980s and the 1990s, the writer formed career-building collaborative contacts with leading grassland researchers from France, Germany, and the Netherlands building on meetings at IGC conferences in Nice, France (1989); Palmerston North, New Zealand (1993); Winnipeg and Saskatoon, Canada (1997); and Sao Pedro near Sao Paulo, Brazil (2001). Words cannot capture the benefits to a grassland scientist of attending an IGC. The auspicious 100th anniversary IGC is to be again held in Leipzig from June 13 to 18, 2027 (https://igc2027.org), and includes a day of mid-congress tours. These are sure to be thought-provoking and engaging, given that a major current European Union policy is to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emission status across all sectors by 2050. Abstract submissions are currently open and there is also a call for proposals for workshop sessions.