Soils constitute one of the largest reservoirs of biodiversity on Earth, and soil organisms are the source of key ecological functions and services that support agriculture, including soil conservation, water cycling, pest and diseases regulation, carbon sequestration and nitrogen fixation.

At the last UN Biodiversity Conference, held in Egypt in 2018, the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) invited the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to prepare a report on the state of knowledge on soil biodiversity covering its current status, challenges and potentialities. Additionally, the COP requested the Secretariat of the CBD, in consultation with FAO and under the aegis of the Global Soil Partnership (GSP) as well as other interested partners, to review the implementation of the International Initiative for the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Soil Biodiversity.

This survey is the first step of this process. The aim is to collect information at country level on the status of soil biodiversity, improve the understanding of concerns and threats to soil biodiversity, compile information regarding relevant policies, regulations or frameworks that have been implemented, and catalogue current soil biodiversity management. This will contribute to the development of a global assessment that is regionally contextualized.

The survey is being circulated by FAO’s GSP in collaboration with the CBD and is available at the following link http://tiny.cc/x8lhaz.

To enhance collaboration, the Parties to the CBD will be invited to submit information through the same platform. I would therefore like to encourage you to coordinate the responses to this survey with the appropriate line Ministries and with relevant institutions at national level, and to submit the responses no later than 8 September 2019.

Photo courtesy of the European Commission

Read more: 

• 7th Global Soil Partnership Plenary Assembly
• Fourteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 14)
  Decision 14/30 Cooperation with other conventions, international organizations and initiatives

Related links: 

• Revised World Soil Charter
• Voluntary Guidelines for Sustainable Soil Management
• Global Symposium on Soil Biodiversity (GSOBI20)