The two-day summit (May 4-5 2016), organized in collaboration between the Representation of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in the Islamic Republic of Iran, University of Tehran and Secretariat for the Advancement of Science and Technology in the Islamic World, focused on issues such as soil threats, assessment and evaluation methods, strategies for rehabilitation and sustainable soil management, and soils, ecosystems and human well-being.
The ITPS international experts from Australia, Iraq, Lebanon, Malaysia, Pakistan, Russia, and Turkey shared and exchanged with the Iranian counterparts on creating a framework for scientific cooperation between researchers in Iran and the other countries in different regions. They also worked on exchange of experiences and knowledge of soil management, conservation and exploitation.
Highlighting the year 2015 as the International Year of Soils, the FAO Representative to the Islamic Republic of Iran Mr. Serge Nakouzi underscored that the Status of the World’s Soil Resources Report launched in December 2015 hadd identified that global soils were in only fair, poor or very poor conditions.
“The current outlook is for the situation to worsen unless concerted actions are taken by individuals, the private sector, governments and international organizations,” he added in his message to the opening ceremony of the summit.
He stressed that one of the success of the International Year of Soils was the advocacy for including soils into the Sustainable Development Goals which recognized the need to preserve and restore degraded land and soil.
The Intergovernmental Technical Panel on Soils (ITPS) was established at the first Plenary Assembly of the Global Soil Partnership held at FAO Headquarters on June 11 and 12, 2013.
The ITPS is composed of 27 top soil experts representing all the regions of the world. The main function of the ITPS is to provide scientific and technical advice and guidance on global soil issues to the Global Soil Partnership primarily and to specific requests submitted by global or regional institutions. The ITPS will advocate for addressing sustainable soil management in the different sustainable development agendas.
SH/PS
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