Their collective voices called for urgent action on land justice, restoration of degraded lands and soils, and reparations for victims of historical land injustices. 

They also called for more partnership between research institutions and civil society, social movements and grassroots structures, Integrate the aspects of climate change and environmental studies into universities training and teaching offerings to ensure students are well equipped with homegrown solutions and interventions needed to address pressing climate and environmental challenges facing our communities – from biodiversity loss and bioeconomy to pollution, from a social justice perspective.

AFSA actively participated in two side events: one on “The Promise of Agroecology in Tackling Market Injustices and “Colonial Legacies in the Agri-Food Sector”.

During Charles’s session, he spoke about the need for localised food systems, circular input-efficient systems and locally sourced farm biological inputs for better utilisation of the scarce land resource.

His speech positioned agroecology as both a liberating force for smallholder farmers and an economically prudent policy choice.

“Land in Africa is over-occupied, and we need better technologies like integrated water-energy-nutrient systems to use the little available land”, Charles added.

In another side event, discussions on Artificial Intelligence and technologies were held. The need to better manage land resources in the context of climate change through the use of a decision support tool.

At the closing ceremony, a key call to action was to “improve peri-urban land management systems to respond to rapid urbanisation” and “Continue to call on donors to redirect funding away from industrial agriculture, extractives, and carbon offset schemes that commodify land and nature but to invest instead in agroecology, indigenous and community-led stewardship, and women-led land restoration initiatives that strengthen sovereignty and ecological resilience”.