The Minister of Agriculture of the Sultanate of Oman, the FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for the Near East and North Africa and the head of the League of Arab States opened this regional Conference. During the first day, a declaration reaffirming the importance of sustainable soil management for the NENA region was endorsed while on the second day the regional NENA Soil Partnership meeting was held to review the progress made towards sustainable soil management in the region and to propose their action plan for 2030.

As part of the event, several publications were released to wrap up the two-year Technical Cooperation Programme on “Capacity development for the sustainable management of soil resources in the NENA region to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals”. 

These publications consist of a report assessing the capacities and needs of soil laboratories in the region and 11 country factsheets that outline significant facts and accomplishments of the project.

Regional assessment of soil laboratories capacities and needs in the Near East and North Africa region

English: DOI 

Project achievements and key facts by country:

• the Islamic Republic of Iran
• Iraq
• Jordan
• Lebanon
• Morocco
• Oman
• Palestine
• the Sudan
• the Syrian Arab Republic
• Tunisia
• Yemen

A "regional action plan" on the sustainable management of salt-affected soils and the increase of soil organic carbon sequestration is presently underway and will be released in the next weeks.