14-18 October 2024: The World Food Forum (WFF) was held at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) headquarters in Rome, Italy. It served as a powerful platform, bringing together a diverse group of stakeholders to leverage the power of intergenerational collaborations, partnerships, and action across policy, science, innovation, culture, and investment. 

CA4SH members joined a series of youth-led dialogues, workshops, and networking events to highlight the transformative potential of soil health as the foundation of sustainable, resilient food systems. With over 200 members - including farmer organizations, youth, policymakers, scientists, and NGOs - the Coalition is committed to translating science into action, fostering multi-stakeholder collaboration, and amplifying the vital role of youth in global soil health initiatives. 

Healthy soil is the cornerstone of sustainable development, playing a crucial role in providing ecosystem services, achieving food and nutrition security for all, and climate regulation. Its significance can be underscored through the lens of the three Rio Conventions: the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Each convention addresses a distinct but interconnected aspect of environmental sustainability, but what remains constant is the critical role that scaling global soil health plays in achieving the objectives of the conventions.

To hone in on soil as a holistic approach to global environmental challenges, we have summarized some of the ways that healthy soil is central to the objectives of the Rio Conventions and outlined some of the key ways forward.

June 3 to 13, 2024 - The 60th session of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Subsidiaries Bodies (SB60) took place in Bonn, Germany. Also called the 2024 Bonn Climate Change Conference, it brought together an estimated 6,000 attendees to prepare and shape the agenda for COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan later this year. This year, we contributed to several side events led by partners to elevate the importance of soil health.

This month, the CA4SH SteerCo met for their third meeting since it’s inception, and the CA4SH Secretariat hosted the second Quarterly Partners Meeting of 2024. With the alignment of the six-month mark of the year, and these two important meetings for strategizing, collaborating, and sharing experiences, this is a great opportunity to reflect on where we are and where we are going for the rest of the year.

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Since the time I began studying soils 25 years ago, we have seen some amazing progress – as well as a collective realization that much more needs to be done to address land degradation and desertification.

Soil is the skin of the Earth. It is now imperative that we raise the public consciousness about soil and make sure its health is on the international agenda.

On 17 June, we observe Desertification and Drought Day to draw awareness to the rapid transformation of land use that has left over 30 percent of the Earth’s terrestrial surface degraded due to unsustainable agriculture and land management practices, deforestation and urban expansion, all of which are exacerbated by climate change.

Read the full story by Dr Leigh Winowiecki on CIFOR Forest News

The Coalition of Action 4 Soil Health is rooted in the UN Convention to Combat Desertification because of the need for increased global soil health as a major tool to halt desertification, combat drought, and restore land.

The 2024 theme for Desertification and Drought Day (held annually on 17 June), is United for Land: Our Legacy. Our Future, so we asked members of CA4SH to share the relevance of soil health and fighting drought in the context of their organizations, and the role that multi-stakeholder partnerships play in achieving their goals.

To bridge actions between the UNFCCC and UNCBD, CA4SH and partners WWF, UNEP,  the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT, CGIAR, CIFOR-ICRAF, Biovision and the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade co-hosted a roundtable luncheon on the sidelines of the UNCBD Twenty-sixth meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (STTA26). The luncheon was called Food Systems Transformation & Land Use Change: Unlocking the potential for enhanced synergies and finance through NBSPAs and NDCs, where attendees joined a group discussion on how aligning the UNFCCC and UNCBD could unlock and enhance synergies and scale-up financial support at the national level to enable food systems transformation.

For the Coalition of Action 4 Soil Health (CA4SH), 2023 was marked by continual learning and exponential growth, and we are celebrating by launching the inaugural Annual Report. Highlights include a reflection on our roots and growing the Coalition (which now has over 170 multistakeholder members and counting!), zooming in on key engagements, advocating for soil health in the climate agenda, achievements, lessons learned, and a look at what’s to come.

CA4SH is a multi stakeholder partnership of member states, the private sector, research institutions, civil society, farmer organizations, multilateral organizations, NGOs, and more. Drawing on this wealth of knowledge, we organized the first installation of our 2024 Webinar Series: The road ahead for soil health action.

From 26 February to 1 March 2024, the sixth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-6) took place at the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, to discuss global environmental policy amongst the 193 Member States.

The discussions centred on how multilateralism can help tackle the triple planetary environmental crises of climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, pollution and waste. Luckily, we know well of a solution to these challenges and, indeed, all 17 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals: scaling soil health, globally.

Learn more about CA4SH engagements at UNEA-6.

21 FEBRUARY 2024: The Coalition of Action 4 Soil Health (CA4SH) Steering Committee met to discuss actions and foci for the coming year.

Moving forward, CA4SH is committed to keeping soil health in the agenda, scaling it to other arenas (e.g., UNCBD, UNFSS), and further articulating its presence, while moving forward through implementation on the ground and resource mobilization.

“Another year, another record. Recent news headlines seem to support the adage that records are made to be broken.

Yet while records are usually positive news in sport or the business world, they serve as grim reminders in the context of climate change, where unprecedented highs are best avoided and are also avoidable.”

Story from Éliane Ubalijoro, CEO, CIFOR-ICRAF

December 9th, COP28 UAE - In an event held at the Land & Drought Resilience Pavilion, the Coalition of Action 4 soil Health, the WWF, CIFOR-ICRAF and AICCRA convened a discourse on the imperative need to reinforce Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) by emphasizing soil health and nature-based solutions. The event, titled “Strengthening NDCs for Soil Health - learning from practical experience”, brought together a multitude of stakeholders including government representatives, scientists, farmers, and development practitioners to deliberate on critical action for soil health to shape the global climate agenda.

On 15 June, the Coalition of Action 4 Soil Health (CA4SH) together with the British Society of Soil Science (BSSS), and the International “4 per 1000” Initiative, supported by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), hosted a policy dialogue luncheon at the culmination of the 58th session of the UNFCCC Subsidiary Bodies (SBs) in Bonn, Germany.

Officially launched during the UN Framework Convention for Climate Change 27th Conference of the Parties (UNFCCC COP27) this past month. Learn more about who they are and what they do.

A new brochure, Through the Lens of Drought, details highlights, outcomes and the way forward for advancing sustainable solutions for land restoration and drought resilience in the wake of the UNCCD COP15.

The UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) issued the second edition of their flagship report, ‘Global Land Outlook: Land Restoration for Recovery and Resilience’ (GLO2).

The report shares accessible, evidence-based strategies with stakeholders in an effort to advance and implement land restoration efforts across the Globe.

CA4SH holds a side event at UNCCD COP15!

CA4SH partners come together for a May partners’ meeting!

Adrian Leitoro is a youth activist and co-founder of Nature and People as One. Read about his experience attending and speaking at the UNCCD COP15.