WCC News: WCC launches Living Planet Monitor 3 on South Asia at ICARRD+20

On the margins of the Cartagena conference, where faith communities were already demanding that governments recognise land as a fundamental human right, the World Council of Churches (WCC) with the support of its Catholic partners launched the Living Planet Monitor: South Asia – a publication built to trace the links between land, water, and food systems through data and the testimony of communities living them. Living Planet Monitor 3 launch in Cartagena, Colombia. 16 March 2026 The Living Planet Monitor is the WCC's flagship publication series on ecological and climate justice, first issued in 2024. Its first two editions examined agrarian and ecological conditions in Africa. The third turns to South Asia. Its release at a faith-based organisation’s side event during ICARRD+20 – held in Cartagena, Colombia, from 24–28 February–put it squarely into a global conversation on land rights, food sovereignty, and rural justice at the 20th anniversary of the original ICARRD conference. The launch brought together WCC colleagues alongside representatives of the Latin American Episcopal Council, CIDSE (the international alliance of Catholic development organisations), and Caritas Internationalis – partners who also cosigned the faith communities' joint statement calling for transformative land and food policies at the conference. Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay, WCC general secretary, set out the publication’s purpose in his foreword: "The Living Planet Monitor is more than an assessment of trends and indicators. It is an invitation to discern the signs of the times and to act faithfully in response. By bringing together evidence-based analysis and testimonies from the ground, this publication seeks to equip faith communities, policymakers, and civil society with insight, moral courage, and a renewed commitment to ecological and social justice." Rooted in the work of the WCC's Life, Justice, and Peace programme and the Commission on Climate Justice and Sustainable Development, the publication is designed as a key instrument of the WCC's commitment to ecological justice - one that brings together data, analysis, and lived experience to show how land, water, and food systems shape human dignity and the integrity of creation. For the WCC, the South Asia edition also carries a broader significance: as the organisation embarks on the Ecumenical Decade of Climate Justice Action (2025–34), struggles for land, water, and food justice are understood as central to its global Pilgrimage of Justice, Reconciliation, and Unity. Dinesh Suna, WCC programme executive for Land, Water, and Food and editor of the series, said it was built on close collaboration with researchers, faith-based organisations, and civil society partners across South Asia. "Their contributions help anchor the analysis in lived realities and bring forward stories of action and hope – from community-led water stewardship and agro-ecological practices to advocacy for land rights and food sovereignty." Maike Gorsboth, managing editor, was direct about what indicators can and cannot do. "They can never capture the full complexity of people's lives and ecosystems," she said. "In the Living Planet Monitor, they are therefore complemented by contextual analysis and stories from communities that help interpret what the data can - and cannot - tell us." The Living Planet Monitor on South Asia went on to be cited across several ICARRD+20 side events as a reference for evidence-based advocacy. The publication is available on the WCC website here. Living Planet Monitor Volume 1, Issue 2 Living Planet Monitor, Volume 1, Issue 1 See more

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 356 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 580 million Christians in over 120 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay from the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa.  Media contact: +41 79 507 6363; www.oikoumene.org/press Our visiting address is: World Council of Churches Chemin du Pommier 42 Kyoto Building Le Grand-Saconnex CH-1218 Switzerland