2.9 Celebrating the International Year of Soils at the Global Soil Week: Healthy soils for a healthy life

The need for raising awareness on the importance of soils for food security and nutrition, climate change adaptation, provision of ecosystem services and sustainable development was identified and launched during the establishment and implementation of the Global Soil Partnership. Under this framework, the Sixty-eight session of the United Nations General Assembly decided to declare 2015 as the International Year of Soils (IYS). The IYS constitutes a major platform for raising awareness on the importance of soils and advocate for its sustainable Management.

The Global Soil Week is one of the main IYS events. Hence, we invite participants of the Global Soil Week to a session dedicated to celebrate the International Year of Soils. Key stakeholders will share the IYS key messages and will discuss the main challenges of soils beyond 2015. An IYS Manifesto of Berlin will be also prepared. All these key messages will be shared with the global community via twitter directly from the event.

Agenda:

1. IYS Animation
2. Presentation of the key messages of the IYS
3. Open discussion about the challenges and actions beyond 2015
4. Preparation of an IYS Manifesto of Berlin