@fao rne During the second training on Digital Soil Mapping for Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation

Rabat 11 October: The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) inaugurated on Monday the second training on Digital Soil Mapping for Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation, organized in collaboration with Institue Nationale de Recherche Agronomique (INRA) and the Regional Soil Partnership. The training seminar is labelled a Pre-COP 22 event. 

The four-day workshop in Rabat is for the benefit of experts from the Near East and North Africa region. It aims at providing hands-on training in a variety of Digital Soil Mapping (DSM) methods, and produces a first draft soil carbon map of the NENA countries using DSM.

The FAO Representative in the Kingdom of Morocco, Mr. Michael George Hage, inaugurated the workshop by explaining  the importance of soils in food production and food security at local, national and global level.

He warned that “soils are under pressure from population growth, higher demands for food and competing land uses”, and that “Approximately 33% of our global soils are degraded and policy makers around the world are exploring opportunities to embrace sustainable development via the sustainable development goals.”

Mr. Hage noted that “land degradation and loss of soil quality are widespread in many NENA countries, leading to declining soil fertility and productivity, hydrological disturbance, loss of biological diversity and reduced soil carbon.”

This four-day workshop intends to provide participants with the skills for analyzing soils data and information in their respective countries and generate soil maps that will be used in development planning and policy decision making in agriculture development, sustainable land management and mitigation and adaptation to climate change.

These training workshops are in line with the mission of the Global Soil Partnership (GSP), established by FAO and many stakeholders in December 2012 as a mechanism to develop a strong interactive partnership and enhanced collaboration and synergy of efforts between all stakeholders. From land users  to policy makers, one of the key objectives of the GSP is to improve the governance and promote sustainable management of soils.