The UN has declared 2015 the International Year of Soils. The year launched on World Soil Day with events in Rome, New York and Santiago de Chile, in an effort to raise awareness and promote more sustainable use of this critical resource.

Director-General José Graziano da Silva describes soil as a "silent ally" and said not enough attention is being paid to this important resource.

Healthy soils are not only the foundation for food, fuel, fibre and medical products, but also are essential to our ecosystems, playing a key role in the carbon cycle, storing and filtering water, and improving resilience to floods and droughts, he noted.

Around the world, soil is under pressure: FAO estimates that a third of all soils are degraded, due to erosion, compaction, soil sealing, salinization, soil organic matter and nutrient depletion, acidification, pollution and other processes caused by unsustainable land management practices.

Calling soils a "nearly forgotten resource," Graziano da Silva called for more investment in sustainable soil management, saying that would be cheaper than restoration and "is needed for the achievement of food security and nutrition, climate change adaptation and mitigation and overall sustainable development."

At least a quarter of the world's biodiversity lives underground. Better soil management can assure that those usually unnoticed organisms boost soil's ability to absorb carbon and mitigate desertification, so that even more carbon can be stored -- helping offset agriculture's own emissions of greenhouse gases.

FAO has implemented more than 120 soil-related projects around the world and produced together with UNESCO the World Soil Map. Among the most urgent priorities is to update, standardize and render accessible the world's knowledge of soil types and distribution.

Currently, data on soils is very often outdated, limited in coverage, and fragmented in nature. One of FAO's priorities is to establish a global soil information system that could assist with reliable data decision-making regarding soil management.

FAO has embarked on a host of initiatives, including launching the Global Soil Partnership, which has rolled out the Healthy Soils Facility as its operational arm.

In the Pacific, a regional partnership has been formed within the Global Soil Partnership. The Pacific Soil Partnership was formed at a meeting hosted by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) on 13 October in Suva, Fiji. The Partnership has identified both unique challenges such as atoll agriculture and a larger set of common challenges.