Pillar Two of the GSP underpins many of the actions under the other Pillars by addressing the general lack of societal awareness of the importance of soil in people’s lives and the well - being of the planet. In many cases, deficiency in education is the specific underlying cause of unsustainable land management practices, of the general lack of investment (both in education and physical measures to protect soil) and, as importantly, of the widespread political reluctance to adopt short - and long - term measures to preserve and enhance soil conditions.

The Plan of Action for Pillar 2 consists of six interlinked and interdependent components: policy, investment, education, extension, public awareness and technical cooperation. The development of the Plan of Action was initiated at the European Network Soil Awareness (ENSA) workshop in Aberdeen in September 2013. This was followed by discussions at the 2013 Global Soil Week in Berlin which lead to the establishment of a Working Group to produce a draft plan of action, which was eventually endorsed by the ITPS in April 2014. The PoA was presented, reviewed and adopted by the Plenary Assembly of the GSP in July 2014.

The Plan of Action calls for a systematic awareness raising campaign in all countries on how soil relates to people’s everyday lives. This can be done through brief and vivid messages, not only as part of the World Soil Day celebrations but also as a sustained long-term outreach and engagement programme. The Plan of Action recommends a significant increase in investments to support such actions.

The GSP needs to make full use of the Healthy Soils Facility to generate and facilitate the collection of financial contributions to the Plan of Action .