Headline: Conference on Soils, Food Security and Land Management

What role should soil and land resources play in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Post-2015 Development Agenda due to be agreed at the United Nations General Assembly in New York in 2015? A conference at the Evangelische Akademie Tutzing near Munich seeks answers to this question.

Soils are key to sustaining life on Earth. Erosion and sealing threaten this essential resource, which is non-renewable in human timescales. Sustainable land management is an essential prerequisite for sustainable development in general and food security in particular.
The Tutzing Conference marks a further step in the transition to sustainable soil and land management initiated by the Global Soil Forum at the IASS. The UN Open Working Group of the General Assembly on Sustainable Development Goals issued its proposal for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in July 2014. On that basis, Sustainable Development Goals will be integrated into the post-2015 Development Agenda to be adopted in September 2015. Three of the proposed SDGs are explicitly concerned with our use of soils and land. Goal 15 addresses the protection, restoration and sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems and the reversal of land degradation. Goal 2 calls for greater food security and sustainable agriculture. And Goal 17 focuses on strengthening the means of implementation and revitalizing global partnerships for sustainable development.
The Tutzing Conference will investigate possible ways of implementing the SDGs, including the enabling environment with regard to soils and sustainable land management at all levels of governance. It will also address the monitoring of the sustainable use of soils and land management. Participants will draw up a set of actions (road map) to facilitate implementation and share their experiences of soil protection measures and land rehabilitation, good land governance and the role of civil society.
All stakeholders with an interest in soils, food security and sustainable land management are invited to come to Tutzing on Lake Starnberg, Germany to debate these issues and plan next steps. Representatives from all levels of government, NGOs, international organisations, agriculture and other sectors of economy, as well as scientists and people active in raising awareness of soil are welcome. It is sure to be a great opportunity to network and share experiences.

The conference is organised by the Evangelische Akademie Tutzing in cooperation with Biovision – Foundation for Ecological Development, Zurich, the German Federal Environmental Agency (UBA), Dessau-Roßlau, the Global Soil Forum at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies, Potsdam, and the Millennium Institute, Washington DC.

To download a copy of the programme, please click here.

For more information and registration, please click here.