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 Murigi Wanjiru uncovered nuances of how scientific concepts of soil affects how we value and measure soil health, and why.

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.

March 14th, Accelerating Nature-based Solutions Conference: In a call to address the pressing issue of soil degradation and its detrimental effects on food systems and livelihoods, a recent event co-hosted by the Coalition of Action 4 Soil Health (CA4SH) and CIFOR-ICRAF underscored the urgency for multi-stakeholder action to promote healthy soil ecosystems across Africa. The gathering, which brought together diverse stakeholders from farming communities, science, policy, development, conservation, and the private sector, emphasized the critical role of soil in sustainable and regenerative food systems.

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 first installation of our 2024 Webinar Series: The road ahead for soil health action.

Women and gender-diverse people around the World are a non-negotiable, indispensable part of food systems and efforts to scale soil health, globally.

For International Women’s Day 2024, we reached out to powerhouse women from across the CA4SH network who are working with NGOs, farmer cooperatives, research, public and private domains, and more, to deliver key messages on why gender inclusion is so important to scaling soil health.

From 26 February to 1 March 2024, the sixth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-6) took place at the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, to discuss global environmental policy amongst the 193 Member States.

The discussions centred on how multilateralism can help tackle the triple planetary environmental crises of climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, pollution and waste. Luckily, we know well of a solution to these challenges and, indeed, all 17 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals: scaling soil health, globally.

Learn more about CA4SH engagements at UNEA-6.

Conserve soils to meet global climate, land and biodiversity goals, say experts.

Read the full story from CIFOR Forest News

Image: Soil testing in Malawi. Photo by Kelvin Trautman/CIFOR-ICRAF

“Another year, another record. Recent news headlines seem to support the adage that records are made to be broken.

Yet while records are usually positive news in sport or the business world, they serve as grim reminders in the context of climate change, where unprecedented highs are best avoided and are also avoidable.”

Story from Éliane Ubalijoro, CEO, CIFOR-ICRAF

December 9th, COP28 UAE - In an event held at the Land & Drought Resilience Pavilion, the Coalition of Action 4 soil Health, the WWF, CIFOR-ICRAF and AICCRA convened a discourse on the imperative need to reinforce Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) by emphasizing soil health and nature-based solutions. The event, titled “Strengthening NDCs for Soil Health - learning from practical experience”, brought together a multitude of stakeholders including government representatives, scientists, farmers, and development practitioners to deliberate on critical action for soil health to shape the global climate agenda.

December 5th, COP28 UAE - The Food Systems Pavilion at COP28 was filled with discussions centred around the critical theme of soil health during the event “Common Ground: Soil Health Action for Nature, People, and Climate”, organized by the Coalition of Action 4 Soil Health (CA4SH) to mark World Soil Day.

Bringing together stakeholders representing the private sector, NGOs, academia, governments and more, CA4SH contributed to three events at the Africa Food Systems Forum (AGRF) between 4th and 5th September to discuss what scaling soil health looks like, and the vision for Africa’s soils we are working steadily towards.

Rangelands cover about half of the Earth’s land surface, store between 10 and 30% of terrestrial carbon, and support over 2 billion people, yet they are under-recognized and under-valued and have been largely ignored in sustainable development agendas and climate negotiations.

On 21 August 2023, CA4SH joined CIFOR-ICRAF, Focali, IGAD, SIWI, SLU, University of Nairobi, and WWF at the 2023 World Water Week organized by Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) in a virtual session to discuss water-smart rangeland restoration.

10 MAY 2023: The Coalition of Action 4 Soil Health (CA4SH) hosted a Breakout Session at the AIM for Climate Summit in Washington, DC, USA. Global leaders from policy, industry, producer organisations, civil society groups, and scientists and researchers came together for the three-day Summit to drive their work on climate-smart agriculture and innovations in food systems.

First-ever food systems pavilion to shine spotlight on foundation of life on land.

Read an excerpt from the story by Sandra Cordon, originally posted on the CIFOR Forest News website.

The Coalition of Action 4 Soil Health (CA4SH) joined co-conveners at the Stockholm International Water Institute World Water Week (SIWI WWW), held on September 1st, 2022.

Viewpoint by Dr Leigh Ann Winowiecki, co-lead of CA4SH and Research Theme Leader, Soil and Land Health, World Agroforestry (ICRAF)

Soils are fundamental to protecting and restoring nature, yet they are often left out of dialogue on food systems transformation. Read the article from CA4SH co-lead Leigh Winowiecki to learn more.

Dr Leigh Ann Winowiecki, soil systems scientist at CIFOR-ICRAF, and Dr Rattan Lal, a distinguished professor of soil science at Ohio State University and World Food Prize Laureate, discuss why soil needs to be front and centre of global policies.