Global Symposium on Soil Biodiversity

The Global Symposium on Soil Biodiversity (GSOBI20), ‘Keep soil alive, protect soil biodiversity’ will be a science-policy meeting, held over three days, from 10-12 March, at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) headquarters in Rome, Italy. Jointly organized by the UN FAO and its Global Soil Partnership (GSP), the Intergovernmental Technical Panel on Soils (ITPS), together with the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (UNCBD) and the Global Soil Biodiversity Initiative (GSBI).

The main objective is to fill some critical knowledge gaps and promote discussion among policy makers, food producers, scientists, practitioners and other stakeholders on solutions to live in harmony with nature, and ultimately, achieve the SDGs through the conservation and sustainable use of soil biodiversity.

In the framework of the Symposium, the FAO’s Global Soil Partnership (GSP) is launching a Call for Side Events. Side events provide institutions with the opportunity to launch initiatives, promote projects or programmes, and share outputs of common interest in line with the call’s guidelines. This call is addressed to FAO member countries, UN organizations, GSP partners and stakeholders, regional organizations, associations, NGOs, research institutions, farmers, academia and the private sector.

Side events proposals should focus on at least one of the below topics:

• Effective and replicable methodologies, techniques, practices, and innovative technologies that are promoting the conservation and sustainable use of soil biodiversity
• Soil biodiversity, a nature based solution;
• Soil biodiversity and ecological restoration;
• The bigger picture: considering biodiversity at the landscape level;
• Soil biodiversity importance for food security and safety;
• Soil biodiversity and human health;
• Investing (public and private) in soil biodiversity preservation;
• Community and/or participatory successful actions and/or initiatives to protect soil biodiversity;
• Policy development strategies and soil governance.

The selected side events will take place between the 10 and 12 March 2020 at FAO HQ in Rome, Italy during the GSOBI 20 symposium.
Submissions Deadline: 31 January 2020.
Notification of the selected side events will be provided by 10 February 2020.

For more information visit the FAO website.