Third Global Soil Week (GSW) 2015 - “Soil. The Substance of Transformation”

The third day of Global Soil Week 2015 focused on developing an integrated perspective beyond 2015. In the morning, participants attended dialogue sessions on: experiences and strategies for implementation and monitoring of responsible governance of tenure of land, fisheries and forests; tools and approaches to increasing supply-chain sustainability of land-based commodities; soil and land indicators for the international policy agenda: towards joint action; building a knowledge and innovation platform on soil contamination for soil policies; financing soil and land rehabilitation; soil fertility management; nexus governance Post-2015: collaborative implementation; and soil-atmosphere exchange.

At lunchtime, participants attended the opening of the One Hectare exhibition and art installation in the park Gleisdreick – Schöneberger Wiese. The installation includes works from international artists in the form of performances, sculpture, sound installations and videos. To mark the opening, black fabric was unrolled over an area of one hectare by a group of performance artists. The unrolling lasted 20 minutes to symbolize the speed at which soil is being sealed in Germany.

The final plenary convened in the afternoon. Thomas Silberhorn, BMZ, described Germany’s support efforts to reduce land degradation and improve food security through the One World No Hunger Initiative. Alexander Müller, IASS Secretary General, summarized the conference’s main messages including: that sustainable land management can help achieve several SDGs; that soil protection and rehabilitation is about technologies as well as human rights; and the need to implement the SDGs consistently, and take advantage of their transformational potential.

The closing panel discussed how to move forward after Global Soil Week 2015. Theatersport Berlin closed the meeting with an improvised performance creatively capturing key messages emerging from conference.