COP30 Belém: Global South Regenerative Ag Report Released
By Team Perspectives from the Global South, Max-Planck-Institut
TL;DR: A new report from the Max Planck Institute highlights Indigenous regenerative agriculture as key to resilient food systems and land restoration.
- Indigenous knowledge is vital for regenerative agriculture.
- Regenerative practices improve soil, biodiversity, and water.
- RAIZ Accelerator aims to scale land restoration globally.
- Policymakers should integrate local realities into global agendas.
- Successful models exist for mobilizing finance for restoration.
Why it matters: This report provides a global perspective on how traditional, ecological knowledge can inform scalable solutions for climate change and food security, offering practical examples and financial mechanisms.
Do this next: Research the RAIZ Accelerator and explore how your local organizations can engage with its initiatives for land restoration.
Recommended for: Policymakers, researchers, farmers, and investors interested in sustainable agriculture, climate adaptation, and land restoration, particularly those focused on global solutions and Indigenous knowledge.
The Max Planck Institute's 'Perspectives from the Global South' team released an Executive Report on Regenerative Agriculture and Resilient Food Systems during COP30 in Belém, Brazil, on December 9, 2025. This comprehensive document synthesizes interdisciplinary research from the Global South, featuring case studies from the Andes, Africa, and Asia. It emphasizes regenerative agriculture practices rooted in longstanding local and Indigenous knowledge systems, such as traditional terraces, agroforestry, communal water management, and soil-management techniques that enhance resilience in extreme environments. The report highlights the critical role of these methods in land restoration, climate adaptation, and sustainable food production, urging policymakers to align global agendas with local realities. Key insights include the restoration of degraded agricultural lands, which is a priority reaffirmed at COP30, and the mobilization of finance for regeneration efforts. A major focus is the RAIZ Accelerator (Resilient Agriculture Investment for Net-Zero Land Degradation), launched at COP30 and supported by ten countries including Brazil, Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Saudi Arabia, Uruguay, and the United Kingdom. RAIZ aims to scale land restoration through public-private partnerships, map degraded areas, derisk private investments, and collaborate with the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The initiative draws from Brazil's successful Green Way and Eco Invest programs, which mobilized around 6 billion dollars to restore up to 3 million hectares of pastureland, enabling record crop harvests in 2025. The report underscores how regenerative practices improve soil health, biodiversity, water retention, and carbon sequestration, countering the degradation caused by conventional chemical-intensive farming. It calls for technical assistance, cooperatives, and policy frameworks to support smallholder farmers, mirroring successes in Latin America where Brazil transformed from a food importer to a major exporter through scientific advancements by EMBRAPA, incorporating bioinputs for precise application and better soil organic matter. Discussions at COP30, including those by IICA and partners, stressed scaling regenerative agriculture for production and environmental benefits, with examples from Argentina's INTA showing reduced environmental issues and increased yields. The report integrates these global dialogues, advocating for lower emissions, resilient value chains, and equitable systems as outlined in CGIAR's COP30 briefs on low-carbon transitions. Overall, it positions regenerative agriculture as a viable pathway to mitigate climate change, enhance food security, and restore ecosystems, backed by evidence of symbiotic soil-plant relationships via fungal networks that buffer against extreme weather. This work bridges science, policy, and practice, providing actionable recommendations for transforming agrifood systems worldwide.