Rangelands are among the world’s largest and most important ecosystems, supporting the livelihoods of 500 million people and one billion animals while covering more than half of the Earth’s terrestrial surface. Yet these ecosystems remain overlooked and are increasingly threatened by climate change, land-use change, resource extraction, privatization, and shifting social and cultural dynamics.

This report applies the Behavior-Centered Design framework to understand how the actions, motivations, and barriers of key actors including pastoralists, farmers, governments, businesses, and international organizations shape rangeland management. It identifies why many restoration efforts fail by matching the wrong solutions to the wrong behavioral challenges, and proposes evidence-based pathways that address people’s needs and decision-making to better protect biodiversity while sustaining the communities that depend on rangelands.