African Regional Soil Partnership

Liesl Wiese

20 May 2015

GSP Africa Launched

Eastern and Southern Africa – Apr 2013

Western and Central Africa - Mar 2013

Regional Priorities Addressing soil degradation (Pillar 1).

Implementing SSM practices (Pillar 1).

Soil information (Pillars 4 and 5).

Resilience towards climate change (Pillars 1

and 3).

Training and capacity building (Pillar 2).

Linking with national, regional and global

initiatives (Pillars 1 and 2).

Completed activities

Eastern and Southern Africa DSM Training completed

Oct 2014, Feb 2015

Western and Central Africa DSM Training completed

Mar 2015

Implementation Plan

5 year implementation Need to source funding Clear outcomes and outputs Clear actions and activities Facilitated and supported by GSP

Secretariat National contributions and support

Implementation Plan

Pillar 1: Promote Sustainable Soil Management Identify good and working SSM practices and

barriers to implementation Support SSM by balanced soil fertility

management Develop a monitoring system to measure

progress Capacity building in SSM

Implementation Plan

Pillar 2: Investment, technical cooperation, policy, education, awareness, extension Short term implementation

World Soil Day (5 Dec) Engage soil advocates, policy makers, promote soil education, encourage and reward soil scientists, engage with society at large

Implementation Plan

Pillar 2: Investment, technical cooperation, policy, education, awareness, extension Medium term implementation

Introduce soil as theme in schools, Establish soil extension programs, Develop guidance and policy framework for soil

assessment, Documentation tools and curricula to be updated Increase involvement of young soil scientists in

international training events

Implementation Plan

Pillar 2: Investment, technical cooperation, policy, education, awareness, extension Long term implementation

Engage with international stakeholders to promote importance of soils

Develop awareness approaches Effective communication to policy makers

Implementation Plan

Pillar 3: Promote targeted soil research Plan of Action still to be endorsed

Implementation Plan

Pillar 4: Enhance soil data and information Integrate global soil information system with

Global Earth Observing System of Systems Training on global soil information system System for monitoring and forecasting

condition of soil resources Use data from national and within-country

systems

Implementation Plan

Pillar 5: Harmonization of methods, measurements and indicators Create reference system for integration of soil

maps from different sources Develop over-arching soil description system Harmonization process to follow established

principles Use FAO (2006) Guidelines if no national

method available Review sampling, preparation and

measurement practices

Implementation Plan

Pillar 5: Harmonization of methods, measurements and indicators Develop indicators for monitoring soil condition Soil classification by WRB or USDA Soil

Taxonomy Develop correlation procedures and

evaluation functions