Resource information
The development of the Pillar 1 plan of action was initiated during the “Managing Living Soils” workshop held in Rome, Italy during December 2012. This workshop focused on the regional and national status, as well as challenges and priorities for sustainable soil management. This was followed by a Pillar 1 discussion session during the 2nd Global Soil Week held in Berlin, October 2013. The aim of the discussion was to decide on the structure of the plan of action and its main content. A formal Working Group of 26 members was formed according to the GSP Rules of Procedure, tasked with developing a draft plan of action for Pillar 1 from November 2013 to March 2014. The draft plan of action was submitted to the Intergovernmental Technical Panel on Soils (ITPS) for its review and endorsement. Following a very dynamic process during which ITPS recommendations were included, the draft was endorsed by ITPS during its second working session in April 2014 and submitted to the Second Plenary Assembly of the GSP. The Plenary Assembly consolidated the original 11 recommendations endorsed by the ITPS into five concrete recommendations. Additional comments and suggestions from GSP members were incorporated and this final version of the Pillar One Plan of Action was endorsed by the Plenary Assembly of the GSP on 23 July, 2014.
