With the support of FAO, Ukraine will develop a Strategy for achieving a neutral level of soil degradation

This decision was made by the participants of the first meeting of the National Working Group on Standardization and Harmonization of Methods and Methodologies for Monitoring and Analysis of Soil Conditions within the framework of creating a single unified platform for processing and visualization of soil monitoring data. The meeting was initiated by the Ukrainian Soil Partnership, in cooperation with public authorities and the general public, with the support of Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

Oleksandr Krasnolutskyi, Deputy Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources, noted that the issue of improving the monitoring system of lands and soils is definitely relevant, and the availability of appropriate information on their condition allows its protection, effective management and use.  "Information on the status of lands and the spread of certain types of degradation processes in Ukraine is collected by various monitoring entities using different methodologies, so it is extremely difficult to compare them, spatially identify affected areas and the share of degraded lands." he added.

The Deputy Minister also noted that in Ukraine, with the funding of the Global Environment Facility, the FAO project "Integrated Natural Resources Management in Degraded Landscapes in the Forest-Steppe and Steppe Zones of Ukraine" is being implemented. The main beneficiary of the project is the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources.

"Within the project, we are working on the improvement of the lands and soils monitoring system, as well as contributing to achievement of a neutral level of degradation through the implementation of certain national objectives." said the Deputy Minister, adding that the Ministry is open to cooperation with stakeholders.

The meeting was attended by almost 30 representatives from the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Agrarian Policy and Land Relations, the Ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources, the State Service of Ukraine for Geodesy, Cartography and Cadastre, experts of the Global Soil Partnership and FAO, representatives of leading national institutes in the field of soil science, agricultural and laboratory business, and the public and international organizations.

In particular, Konstantin Vyatkin from the Global Soil Partnership highlighted FAO's support for countries' initiatives to implement sustainable soil management systems and provide methodological support for the establishment of national monitoring systems with further integration into the GLOSIS global monitoring system.

Mykola Miroshnychenko from the leadership of the Ukrainian Soil Partnership Association reported on the existing experience of soil monitoring in the country and new challenges related to national commitments. He also presented the results of the survey on monitoring indicators, and further steps to implement the methodology and frequency of collection on priority indicators.

Based on the results of the discussion, the participants decided to group indicators of soil condition monitoring in accordance with the demand and level of measurement, to finalize and submit the first draft of the Strategy for achieving neutral soil degradation to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Agriculture by the end of 2020. The next meeting of the working group will be held in December to approve the first draft of the Strategy.