Healthy soil is the very foundation of our food systems and provides several vital ecosystem services, from carbon sequestration to improving food and nutrition security.  Efforts to combat desertification, to move from scarcity to prosperity, will need to consider how to scale soil health, globally. With over one third of the Earth’s surface degraded and over 3.2 billion people negatively affected by degradation, continuing business as usual is no longer an option. Now is the time for multi-stakeholder action to build an enabling environment at multiple levels for supporting, financing, scaling and monitoring healthy soil ecosystems.

The objectives of this session are to:

1. Raise awareness of and support for the critical role soil health has to achieve the SDGs, including Land Degradation Neutrality;
2. Garner support for the Coalition of Action 4 Soil Health (CA4SH);
3. Demonstrate examples of the impact of National Policies for Soil Health;
4. Highlight private sector investment plans that, if scaled, can increase equitable financial incentives that reach the farmers to enable on-the-ground scaling of healthy soil practices.

This session will contribute to UNCCD COP15 by bringing together diverse stakeholders from science, policy, development, conservation and private sector to garner support to combat desertification by scaling investments in soil health. The session will provide meaningful content and insights to final statements coming out of the COP15 as well provide an update on the advancements of science in terms of soil health monitoring. Furthermore, the session will demonstrate the need for multi stakeholder action to achieve the SDGs, with a focus on soil-centric approaches.

REGISTERCoalition for Soil Health

CIFOR-ICRAF speakers

Leigh Winowiecki

Global research leader: soil and land health, CIFOR-ICRAF
Co-lead,CA4SH

Ebagnerin Jérôme Tondoh

Land Health Scientist, CIFOR-ICRAF