In Northern Kenya, WWF works with a community-run organisation called Nature and People as One (NaPO) through the Voices for Climate Action programme, which serves as a great example of harnessing the intergenerational knowledge and experience of pastoralist communities. Founded in 2018 by young people from Karare, Marsabit, NaPO works closely with pastoralists to address the challenges they are facing constructively, in order to protect, manage and restore rangelands and the valuable ecosystem services they provide.

Read the full story on the UN Decade of Restoration website

Nakivale refugee settlement was established in 1958 and is the 8th largest refugee settlement in the world, located approximately 200 km away from Kampala, Uganda'. It is one of the oldest refugee settlements in Uganda and contains 79 individual villages.

Recently, food distribution has reduced, creating a food shortage worsened by persistent drought and soil exhaustion. Since 2023, the communities’ needs have outpaced available resources.

Mbilizi Kalombo is a young Congolese refugee living in Nakivale Refugee Settlement. He is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of KYETE BIINGI TAI NYEME - a refugee-led, community-based organization seeking to improve the lives of refugees, including by promoting sustainable soil management practices.

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Since the time I began studying soils 25 years ago, we have seen some amazing progress – as well as a collective realization that much more needs to be done to address land degradation and desertification.

Soil is the skin of the Earth. It is now imperative that we raise the public consciousness about soil and make sure its health is on the international agenda.

On 17 June, we observe Desertification and Drought Day to draw awareness to the rapid transformation of land use that has left over 30 percent of the Earth’s terrestrial surface degraded due to unsustainable agriculture and land management practices, deforestation and urban expansion, all of which are exacerbated by climate change.

Read the full story by Dr Leigh Winowiecki on CIFOR Forest News

The Coalition of Action 4 Soil Health is rooted in the UN Convention to Combat Desertification because of the need for increased global soil health as a major tool to halt desertification, combat drought, and restore land.

The 2024 theme for Desertification and Drought Day (held annually on 17 June), is United for Land: Our Legacy. Our Future, so we asked members of CA4SH to share the relevance of soil health and fighting drought in the context of their organizations, and the role that multi-stakeholder partnerships play in achieving their goals.

This video blog is from the UNEP YouTube channel

To mark 2024 World Environment Day, the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF) brought their lab to the UN complex in Nairobi (UNON) to teach the #generationrestoration the basics of soil management and opportunities for restoration.

The workshop on “The pathway to healthy soil management” hosted 40 students from Aga Khan Academy, Lenana School and Kenya High School. Students got their hands dirty learning about different types of soils, causes of land degradation, best practices and nature-based solutions to soil management.

“Water and transhumance are often overlooked in restoration research projects. I am very glad that Restore4More will focus on these aspects”, said Peter Minang, Director for Africa at the Centre for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF). Minang made the welcome remarks at the launch meeting of the Restore4More project held in the CIFOR-ICRAF campus in Nairobi on 15-17 April 2024.

Read the full story from Aida Bargués Tobella for SLU

This week, at the Centennial Celebration and Congress of the International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS) in  Florence, Italy, the Honorable Penelope Wensley AC was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal in recognition of her environmental advocacy, diplomacy, and the pursuit of scaling soil health.

At the recent IUSS Centennial Celebration and Congress held in Florence, Italy, on May 19-21, the British Society of Soil Science (BSSS) hosted a fireside chat focused on the pivotal role of policy in addressing soil degradation and promoting sustainable land management.

Founded as the International Society of Soil Science (ISSS) on 19th May 1924, the International Union of Soil Scientists (IUSS), with the Italian Soil Science Society (SISS) welcomed more than 1500 scientists from all over the world to Rome, Italy, where the IUSS was founded, to celebrate 100 years of action on soils.

To bridge actions between the UNFCCC and UNCBD, CA4SH and partners WWF, UNEP,  the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT, CGIAR, CIFOR-ICRAF, Biovision and the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade co-hosted a roundtable luncheon on the sidelines of the UNCBD Twenty-sixth meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (STTA26). The luncheon was called Food Systems Transformation & Land Use Change: Unlocking the potential for enhanced synergies and finance through NBSPAs and NDCs, where attendees joined a group discussion on how aligning the UNFCCC and UNCBD could unlock and enhance synergies and scale-up financial support at the national level to enable food systems transformation.

In 2018, a village in Chhattisgarh, India struggled to meet market demands for chillies due to low yields and a short growing period. The villagers turned to Cownomics® Technology from Vaidic Srijan, an approach rooted in traditional Indian Vedic sciences that balances the health of soil, water and air for greater overall cohesion on the farm. Farmers were taken aback by how quickly they saw their crops respond.

Story and photos from Madhukar Swayambhu, Founder & Research Head, Vaidic Srijan LLP, a member of CA4SH from Bharat (India)

CA4SH’s Webinar Series was held over three sessions in the lead-up to the Africa Fertilizer and Soil Health Summit to address key challenges currently constraining farmers to implement healthy soil practices. The first two sessions were held under the topics of bringing soil health into policy and financing healthy soil practices. This third session focused on the science and knowledge needed to generate actionable data for soil health monitoring and scaling up, informing and tracking soil health practices on the ground whilst addressing key barriers.

From 7-8 May 2024, African leaders and stakeholders came together to reverse soil degradation and map a joint way forward for the continent by putting farmers first.

The Africa Fertilizer and Soil Health Summit (AFSHS) was raised to address changes in the agricultural sector in Africa since the 2006 Abuja Declaration on Fertilizer for the Africa Green Revolution. Since the Abuja Declaration, sustainable soil management has become an increasingly recognized priority for reversing land degradation and contributing to the climate adaptation strategies of African countries.

As active proponents of soil health to address all 17 Sustainable Development Goals, CA4SH participated in and hosted several sessions at the AFSHS to bridge science and policy spaces with examples of concerted action on the ground.

Biome Makers, a global agtech company, announces the release of its 2023 Impact Report, which details the company's significant contributions to regenerative agriculture and soil health over the past year. The report highlights Biome Makers’ commitment to sustainability and the innovative use of its BeCrop technology.

Understanding of African ecosystems; initiative that establishes baseline and monitoring for land degradation assessment and rehabilitation

Story and photo essay by: Anthony Ochieng Onyango and Faith Tuarari

In a recent review of contemporary, peer-reviewed literature, CIFOR-ICRAF Land Health Data Analyst, Eva Wanjiru Murigi uncovered nuances of how scientific concepts of soil affects how we value and measure soil health, and why.

In an era where soil degradation threatens food security and environmental stability worldwide, the International Biochar Initiative (IBI) is at the forefront of promoting biochar as a circular solution. The 2023 Global Biochar Market Report, co-authored with the US Biochar Initiative (USBI), presents an in-depth analysis of the biochar industry’s growth and its crucial role in improving soil health on a global scale.

From afar, scaling soil health by switching from traditional monocrop agricultural systems to regenerative systems may seem as easy as planting the right plants in the right spot. However transitioning to new systems usually sees farmers’ yields decrease before they increase, which can be a limiting factor for farmers who don’t have a financial cushion to fall back on. Support is needed to help them bridge the gap.

CA4SH is a multi-stakeholder partnership of member states, the private sector, research institutions, civil society, farmer organizations, multilateral organizations, NGOs, and more. Drawing on this wealth of knowledge, we organized the second installation of our 2024 Webinar Series: The road ahead for soil health action to explore different mechanisms to invest in soil health, making sure these investments reach smallholder farmers.

Worldwide, agriculture employs the largest portion of youth (around 60% in Africa, for example), making soil health central to youth empowerment and food security in developing countries where agriculture's contribution to GDP exceeds 20%. Youth can participate in advocacy for soil and land health through political fora, techno-communications, community action, research and more.

Roël D. Houdanon, Founder & Chief Technical Advisor of the Land and Health Association, shares his thoughts on avenues for youth participation and his unique story of moving through advocacy spaces and championing soil health, as well as a case study for youth action on the ground.

For the Coalition of Action 4 Soil Health (CA4SH), 2023 was marked by continual learning and exponential growth, and we are celebrating by launching the inaugural Annual Report. Highlights include a reflection on our roots and growing the Coalition (which now has over 170 multistakeholder members and counting!), zooming in on key engagements, advocating for soil health in the climate agenda, achievements, lessons learned, and a look at what’s to come.