The commemoration of the World Soil Day every December 5, was launched by the IUSS during its 17 th World Congress on Soil Science (Bangkok, Thailand, 2002), warning that fertile soil is essential both for the implementation of agricultural and livestock practices that are a guarantee of our food security, and equally essential for the realization of all social and ecosystem functions that sustain life on The Earth.
In 2012, a new context was set to address "urgent need to raise awareness of the importance of soils and specially to protect and use them in a sustainable manner", within the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the "Global Soil Partnership"; this took place in Rome where soil scientists from around the world were invited to form the Intergovernmental Technical Panel on Soils (ITPS).
Under this framework we set the actions developed by the UN so that during the 68 Session of the Second Commission of the United Nations, under point 25 of the Agenda "Agricultural development, food security, and nutrition", which were approved FAO resolutions 4/2013: "World Soil Day" and 5/2013: "International Year of Soils".
The result was the official designation by UN of December 5 as World Soil Day, and the declaration of 2015 as the International Year of Soil.
Celebrating 2015 as the International Year of Soil, the IUSS adopted the Vienna Soil Declaration “Soil Matters for Humans and Ecosystems”; this same year on December 7, in his role as the IUSS President, Dr. Rainer Horn proclaimed the International Decade of Soils 2015-2024 (IDS).
The IUSS GOES TO SCHOOL educative project invites you to celebrate with us December 5 as World Soil Day every year since the soil is the most important natural resource to preserve life on The Earth and learn every day of your life to take care of it to guarantee the human well-being.
