Soil salinization and sodification are major threats to global food security and to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as identified in the Status of the World Soil Resources report (FAO and ITPS, 2015).
In the last decade, there have been several global fora on salt-affected soils: SPUSH meeting, Global Forum on Salinization and Climate Change, Valencia, Spain 2010; International Conference on Soil Classification and Reclamation of Degraded Lands in Arid Environments, Abu Dhabi, UAE 2010; the Third International Salinity Forum, Riverside, USA 2014; Saline Futures, Leeuwarden, the Netherlands 2019. They highlighted the importance of working towards an integrated approach to the management of salt-affected soils that converges soil, water and plant knowledge with practical solutions through joint actions of scientists, international organizations, research institutions, farmer associations, policy makers, and governments.
To address this need, members of the Global Soil Partnership (GSP) as per recommendation of its Intergovernmental Technical Panel on Soils (ITPS) have endorsed the establishment of the International Network of Salt-Affected Soils (INSAS) during its Plenary Assembly on 5-7 June 2019, in Rome. The launch of INSAS took place during the Global Forum on Innovations for Marginal Environments on 20-21 November 2019, in Dubai.
The main goal of INSAS is to facilitate the sustainable and productive management of salt-affected soils for current and future generations.

The establishment of this network has the following objectives:

1. To promote the sustainable management of salt-affected soils;
2. To develop a harmonized approach and indicators for the assessment, mapping and monitoring of salt-affected soils;
3. To develop guidelines and manuals on good practices for the sustainable management of salt-affected soils;
4. To provide a platform for countries with salt-affected soils to discuss common issues related to the most suitable methods for protection from deterioration and the sustainable management and reclamation of salt-affected soils, as well as establish a network of experts on salt-affected soils to share and develop further knowledge on the issue;
5. To foster collaboration among INSAS member countries towards promoting the sustainable use and management of salt-affected soils, identify relevant knowledge and research gaps and promote regional and global joint research and development programs;
6. To enhance the collaboration between scientists, practitioners and policy-makers aimed at the sustainable management of salt-affected soils;
7. To serve as a platform for capacity development, knowledge sharing and technical cooperation on salt-affected soils monitoring and management;
8. To advocate towards the halt and reversal of the negative trends in expansion of salt-affected soils through different instruments.

Check the FAO DG Xu Dongyu video message

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INSAS Governance
Chairman	Prof. Dr. Jorge Batlle-Sales, University of Valencia, Spain
	Dr. Katarzyna Negacz , Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands and Dr. Meisam Rezaei , Soil and Water Research Institute, Iran
INSAS Coordinator	Maria Konyushkova

Prof. Dr. Mohammad Jamal Khan, University of Agriculture, Pakistan and Dr. Ashok K. Patra, ICAR – Indian Agricultural Research Institute, India are the ITPS representatives to INSAS. The work of INSAS is also supported by the members of the ITPS Salinity working group: Rosa Poch (Spain), Megan Balks (New Zealand), Kutaiba Hassan (Iraq), Rafla Attia (Tunisia).

Any partner of the FAO Global Soil Partnership can become a member of INSAS. To become a partner of the Global Soil Partnership, please register through the form here

National institutions, academia, NGOs, civil society, farmer associations, and other stakeholders interested to participate in the joint action to achieve the sustainable and productive management of salt-affected soils are welcome to join this network.
To join the network, please fill out the online form available in English.
You can also download the form in English | French | Spanish, and send it to [email protected] and [email protected] in cc.