Eighty-six community and traditional leaders from five North-Central states — Benue, Plateau, Nassarawa, Kogi, and Niger — gathered in Jos for ENPUAI’s three-day Farmer-Herder Peace Forum and produced a Joint Declaration committing all parties to a shared grazing season protocol, a joint monitoring committee, and a collective call to state governments for investment in enclosed ranching facilities.

The forum was the most representative dialogue on farmer-herder conflict in the region since 2019. Forty-three leaders came from farming communities; forty-three from herder communities. Both sides designed the Joint Declaration’s three practical measures together:

1. A standardised grazing season calendar, agreed state by state
2. A joint rapid response protocol for when livestock destroy crops or herders face harassment
3. A collective formal request to state governments for enclosed ranching investment

Three weeks after the forum, ENPUAI monitors reported a documented reduction in incidents along three historically violent corridors in Benue — communities describing the atmosphere as one of “cautious hope.”