The International Network on Soil Erosion (INSER)
The International Network on Soil Erosion (INSER), launched in 2025 by FAO and its Global Soil Partnership, is a Technical Network of the Global Soil Partnership (GSP) and follows its rules of procedure. The Network aims to enhance scientific knowledge, improve soil erosion modeling and mapping, and support evidence-based policymaking and conservation practice improvement and adoption. INSER’s mission is to serve as a hub for knowledge exchange and to develop practical solutions which mitigate soil erosion and promote sustainable soil management worldwide.
Functions, duties and more
Soil erosion is a major global challenge that threatens food security, water quality, and ecosystem stability. Identified as a key soil threat in the 2015 Status of the World’s Soil Resources Report and the forthcoming 2025 World’s Soil Resources Status Report, erosion accelerates land degradation, reduces agricultural productivity, and contributes to the loss of soil biodiversity. Human activities such as deforestation, unsustainable land management, and climate change further intensify these processes, increasing the risk of desertification
Recognizing the urgency of this issue, the Global Soil Partnership (GSP) and its partners called for a stronger global coordination to address soil erosion. The 2019 Global Symposium on Soil Erosion, organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and its partners, reinforced this call, also highlighting the need to strengthen erosion assessment, monitoring, and mitigation while improving policy integration. The symposium recommended the establishment of a global platform to advance standardized measurement and monitoring, economic valuation of erosion impacts, conservation practices, and policy guidance.
Members of the GSP, following the recommendation of its Intergovernmental Technical Panel on Soils (ITPS), endorsed the creation of the International Network on Soil Erosion (INSER) during the GSP Plenary Assembly held in Rome on 3–5 June 2025. The Network was officially launched on 15 September 2025 in Rabat, Morocco.
The main goal of INSER is to strengthen global collaboration by facilitating knowledge exchange, harmonizing methodologies, promoting context-specific solutions, and supporting evidence-based policies among scientists, policymakers, and institutions.
The establishment of this network has the following objectives:
- Improve the measurement and modeling of soil erosion caused by water, wind and tillage.
- Assess the effectiveness of soil erosion control measures and improve their designs
- Develop methods to quantify and economically evaluate losses due to soil erosion and benefits due to soil conservation practices.
- Integrate and establish the global unified indicator and criterion for soil erosion evaluation
- Contribute to developing policies and advise on legislation to address the threat of soil erosion.
Any partner of the FAO Global Soil Partnership can become a member of INSER. To become a partner of the Global Soil Partnership, please register by submitting this form.
National institutions, academia, NGOs, civil society, farmer associations, and other stakeholders interested to participate in the joint action in combating soil erosion are welcome to join this network.
To join the network, please fill out the online form available in English.
Working groups
This group focuses on harmonizing soil erosion assessment tools, consolidating data, and developing globally applicable methodologies for measuring and monitoring soil erosion. It will promote the use of remote sensing, GIS-based mapping, and participatory approaches for field validation and comprehensive data collection.
Events
Hybrid Event
Virtual Event
Publications
Key document
Revised World Soil Charter
2015
The Intergovernmental Technical Panel on Soils (ITPS) was tasked to produce a new version of the World Soil Charter (WSC). The challenges faced by the...
Key document
Status of the World's Soil Resources: Main Report
2018
The 2015 Status of the World’s Soil Resources (SWSR) is a reference document on the status of global soil resources that provides regional assessments...
Soil loss assessment in Malawi
2018
Soil loss is a major threat to the agricultural development in Malawi and by extension is also a major hindrance to the overall economic development...