PERU fishing with guts to report…
The consolidation of the management structure of the American Alliance for Land was the main outcome of a workshop organized by the FAO, members of the Global Alliance on the floor, international experts and representatives from ten countries in South America, held in the framework of the Year International Soil 2015.
For four days at the FAO Regional Office in Santiago de Chile, members of the American Alliance for Soil established its Steering Committee and Secretariat, the product of a joint effort with the focal points of floor South American countries and representatives of National Society of Soil.
"The consolidation of this Regional Alliance will enable countries to unite their efforts to protect, recover and manage their soil, an essential factor for the eradication of hunger"Said Ronald Vargas, flooring Officer FAO and Secretary of the Global Alliance on the floor.
In addition, FAO and the Alliance outlined the main points of a five-year regional plan that seeks to address the main problems affecting soil, which will be formalized during the International Year of Soils 2015.
According to FAO, the soils of the region are the basis for food production, which are critical to ensuring food security for all its inhabitants. The soil is a nonrenewable resource: generating only a couple of centimeters of soil can take hundreds of years.
"The soils of South America not only feed the Region, but play a key role in the global power, as the region is a major food exporter"Said Vargas, noting that degradation affects, to varying degrees, a large proportion of agricultural soils in South America.
Soil Challenges in Latin America and the Caribbean
Soil erosion affects the entire continent.
In Peru, the soils of agricultural potential are the scarcest resource of the country (representing 30.1% of the country) and is also the most threatened by degradation processes.
Low fertility is a problem that affects a large part of the soils of the region: about 50% of soils in Latin America and the Caribbean suffer from nutrient deficiencies. In total, about 20% of soils in Latin America and the Caribbean are arid, while 10% have limited drainage for being clay.
The intensification of land use, for example in the Amazon, soil contamination in areas dedicated to the oil industry, and changes in land use to expand the agricultural frontier are also realities which exacerbate land degradation.
On climate change, the role of soils is essential: "In the first meter of soil depth of Latin America and the Caribbean about 185 gigatons of organic carbon, almost twice the carbon accumulated in the vegetation of the Amazon are stored"Gustavo Bernal, President of the Latin American Society of Soil noted
American Alliance for Land
The American Alliance for Soil born of the Global Alliance on the floor, which seeks to promote the sustainable use and soil management to ensure food and nutritional security, adaptation to climate change, the provision of environmental services and sustainable development.
The Global Alliance has five pillars:
1- Promoting sustainable land management
2- Promoting investment, technical cooperation, policies and awareness
3- Promotion of research and development
4- Improving the quantity and quality of data and information on soils
5- Harmonization of methods, measures and indicators for sustainable management and soil protection.
The FAO is in charge of its Secretariat, and coordinates the efforts of governments, civil society, private sector, academia and all other members of the Alliance.
The American Alliance for Land facilitates linkages with the programs and activities of national and local land management to strengthen the assembly and development of synergies work.
SOURCE: Fao.org
