Global Soil Partnership
The Global Soil Partnership (GSP) was established in 2012 to bring soils to the forefront of the global agenda and to promote sustainable management of the resource. As a collaborative platform bringing together governments, scientists, civil society, and the private sector, the GSP works to strengthen governance of the planet’s limited soil resources and guarantee the provision of healthy soils for a food-secure world as well as to support other essential ecosystem functions and services.
In 2021, the GSP adopted its Action Framework 2022-2030, aligned with the United Nations (UN)’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and driven by a clear vision: a world in which soils are healthy and resilient, sustaining ecosystems and people, leaving no one behind. Its bold target is to improve and maintain the health of at least 50 percent of the world’s soils by 2030. This framework is supported by eight technical networks addressing the critical areas of soil biodiversity, black soils, salinity, pollution, erosion, fertility, laboratory, and data.
The GSP’s governance is anchored in inclusive collaboration and is structured around several components:
- the Plenary Assembly, the decision-making body that brings all partners together annually to review progress, set priorities and ensure balanced regional input;
- the Intergovernmental Technical Panel on Soils (ITPS), composed of 27 soil experts from around the world to provide scientific and technical advice and guidance on global soil issues to the GSP;
- seven Regional Soil Partnerships (RSPs) mobilizing stakeholders at regional and national levels to implement sustainable practices adapted to local and regional contexts; and
- over 700 partners – from national institutions to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) – collaborating through knowledge exchange, capacity-building and joint initiatives