Resource Library

Feature Resource:

Youth Initiatives for Scaling Soil Health: Advice from #Youth4Soil Global Advocates

Youth Initiatives for Scaling Soil Health: Advice from #Youth4Soil Global Advocates

The Coalition of Action 4 Soil Health (CA4SH) is a multistakeholder partnership committed to scaling soil health, globally. CA4SH places a high degree of importance on the role of youth as innovators and experts toward scaling global soil health. Youth are engaged through the #Youth4Soil movement, which includes a working group, mentorship opportunities, and support for speaking and engagement. We also want to highlight youth approaches to advocating for global soil health.

In April 2024, Roël D. Houdanon, Founder & Chief Technical Advisor, Land and Health Association shared an op-ed highlighting the role of youth in defending soil health. He presented several avenues for youth to get involved in scaling soil health:

  • Awareness Raising

  • Innovation & Technology

  • Policy Advocacy

  • Community Engagement

  • Education

  • Science & Research

We reached out to youth partners to learn about their individual approaches to scaling soil health through these thematic action areas.

These are their responses.

Read More
Payments for Ecosystems Services to Support Transitions to Sustainable Agriculture and Land Use
Hanna Linden (she/her) | CA4SH Secretariat Hanna Linden (she/her) | CA4SH Secretariat

Payments for Ecosystems Services to Support Transitions to Sustainable Agriculture and Land Use

This brief focuses on Payments for Ecosystems or Environmental Services (PES) as a mechanism for providing incentives to land users to transition to more sustainable land management.

Agriculture and food systems are both drivers and victims of escalating climate and nature crises, in turn increasing the risks to healthy diets, livelihoods and economies. Public policies can set incentives for farming and market practices that further exacerbate these trends, but they can also play a role in reversing them. The global Agriculture Policy Dialogue on Transition to Sustainable Agriculture is a peer-to-peer platform to share experience, facilitate partnerships and catalyse policy leadership to accelerate the transition to sustainable agriculture and food systems that benefit people, prosperity and the planet.

Policy Pathway Briefs provide an overview of emerging experiences and lessons on policy approaches that contribute to this transition, covering a series of topics requested by Policy Dialogue members, to support peer leaning and knowledge exchange. The briefing notes are in no way exhaustive. The options facing governments will be context specific and look different across and within countries. The notes aim to act as a discussion starter and to facilitate exchanges between countries engaged in the Agriculture Policy Dialogue and with other global initiatives, drawing on the experiences presented by members and examples identified through further research.

Read More
Promoting Healthy Soils and Land
Hanna Linden (she/her) | CA4SH Secretariat Hanna Linden (she/her) | CA4SH Secretariat

Promoting Healthy Soils and Land

This brief focuses on soil health, identifying policy instruments and actions for governments to provide incentives and support to farmers to protect and restore agricultural soils.

Agriculture and food systems are both drivers and victims of escalating climate and nature crises, in turn increasing the risks to healthy diets, livelihoods and economies. Public policies can set incentives for farming and market practices that further exacerbate these trends, but they can also play a role in reversing them. The global Agriculture Policy Dialogue on Transition to Sustainable Agriculture is a peer-to-peer platform to share experience, facilitate partnerships and catalyse policy leadership to accelerate the transition to sustainable agriculture and food systems that benefit people, prosperity and the planet.

Policy Pathway Briefs provide an overview of emerging experiences and lessons on policy approaches that contribute to this transition, covering a series of topics requested by Policy Dialogue members, to support peer leaning and knowledge exchange. The briefing notes are in no way exhaustive. The options facing governments will be context specific and look different across and within countries. The notes aim to act as a discussion starter and to facilitate exchanges between countries engaged in the Agriculture Policy Dialogue and with other global initiatives, drawing on the experiences presented by members and examples identified through further research.

Read More
Promoting Efficient Use and Greener Production of Fertilizers
Hanna Linden (she/her) | CA4SH Secretariat Hanna Linden (she/her) | CA4SH Secretariat

Promoting Efficient Use and Greener Production of Fertilizers

This brief focuses on fertilizers and provides guidance on policy actions that can incentivize efficient and more sustainable use and production of synthetic fertilizers.

Agriculture and food systems are both drivers and victims of escalating climate and nature crises, in turn increasing the risks to healthy diets, livelihoods and economies. Public policies can set incentives for farming and market practices that further exacerbate these trends, but they can also play a role in reversing them. The global Agriculture Policy Dialogue on Transition to Sustainable Agriculture is a peer-to-peer platform to share experience, facilitate partnerships and catalyse policy leadership to accelerate the transition to sustainable agriculture and food systems that benefit people, prosperity and the planet.

Policy Pathway Briefs provide an overview of emerging experiences and lessons on policy approaches that contribute to this transition, covering a series of topics requested by Policy Dialogue members, to support peer leaning and knowledge exchange. The briefing notes are in no way exhaustive. The options facing governments will be context specific and look different across and within countries. The notes aim to act as a discussion starter and to facilitate exchanges between countries engaged in the Agriculture Policy Dialogue and with other global initiatives, drawing on the experiences presented by members and examples identified through further research.

Read More
Regenerative Agriculture Metrics: Guidance for Business
Hanna Linden (she/her) | CA4SH Secretariat Hanna Linden (she/her) | CA4SH Secretariat

Regenerative Agriculture Metrics: Guidance for Business

To accelerate regenerative agriculture and transition agricultural models that work within planetary boundaries, it is essential to converge on an integrated measurement architecture. This includes addressing and overcoming the key challenges to alignment – a lack of cohesion on definition and outcomes, fragmented and siloed data collection and reporting, a need to translate global frameworks into local action plans, and a lack of inclusivity of farmers and Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLC) in the process.

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) has prioritized strengthening corporate performance accountability systems for carbon, nature and equity. To this end, WBCSD has launched the Regenerative Agriculture Metrics (RAM) joint working group with the One Planet Business for Biodiversity (OP2B) coalition. This collaborative effort involves more than 50 members and 27 business-focused partners, representing more than 1,100 businesses.

Read More