28 April 2014: At its Second Working Session, the Global Soil Partnership’s (GSP) Intergovernmental Technical Panel on Soils (ITPS) endorsed Plans of Action for three Pillars on: promoting the sustainable management of soil resources (Pillar 1); encouraging investment, technical cooperation, policy and education awareness (Pillar 2); and on the harmonization of methods, measurements and indicators for the sustainable management and protection of soil resources (Pillar 5).The five Pillars of Action guide the GSP’s work in supporting the adoption of a sustainable development goal (SDG) on soils and the sustainable management of soils, globally.

The ITPS requested that the Plan of Action for Pillar 3, on promoting soil research and development, be reformulated on a new agreed framework. The panel also agreed on a way forward for the preparation of the Status of the World Soil Resources Report, as well as on a new version of the World Soil Charter, which will be submitted to the GSP Plenary Assembly, to be held in July 2014.

The ITPS is working to position soils on the global agenda through sound science. Its second meeting was held from 7-11 April 2014 at the headquarters of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) in Rome, Italy. [Publication: Report of the Second Session of the ITPS] [Second Working Session of the ITPS] [GSP Five Pillars of Action]