World Soil Day (WSD) is held annually on 5 December as a means to focus attention on the importance of healthy soil and to advocate for the sustainable management of soil resources. World Soil Day "Keep soil alive, protect soil biodiversity", is the UnitedNations Observance that celebrates healthy
soils for a healthy life.

This year's campaign urges us to focus our attention on the workers belowground – from tiny bacteria to agile millipedes and slimy earthworms - all of which contribute to processes that are indispensable to life on Earth.

Ukraine has a significant world share of highly productive soils, and the expressed need to form a single soil information system to facilitate land management, monitoring, and prevention of loss of soil productivity (degradation). The establishment of a soil monitoring system and its harmonization with world standards would support the socio-economic development of Ukraine by ensuring proper implementation of international environmental and "green" obligations, and to develop a system of sustainability criteria for producers, service providers, and traders.

FAO Ukraine is organizing a press conference dedicated to World Soil Day "The establishment of soil information systems for sustainable food production". The event will be held online, on 3 December 2020 at 1:00-2:30 pm, using the link: https://fao.zoom.us/j/99481704706.

Agenda
3 December 2020, 1:00-2:30 pm
13:00-13:05 – Opening remarks, Osnat Lubrani, UN System Resident Coordinator, Humanitarian Coordinator
13:05-13:10 – Opening remarks, Mara Lopes, FAO Ukraine Head of Office
13:10-13:20 – Taras Vysotsky, Deputy Minister for Development of Economy, Trade and Agriculture of Ukraine
13:20-13:30 – Oleksandr Krasnolutskiy, Deputy Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of
Ukraine
13:30-13:40 – Lucrezia Caon, Land and Water Officer, Global Soil Partnership, FAO
13:40-13:50 – Roman Leshchenko, Head of the State Service of Ukraine for Geodesy, Cartography and Cadastre
13:00-14:00 – Igor Yatsuk, Head of the State Institution “Soils Protection Institute of Ukraine”
14:00-14:20 – Interventions
• Sergiy Vyzhva, Head of the Institute of Geology, Kyiv National University
• Yuriy Dmytruk, Head of Department of Soil Science, Chernovtsy National University
• Larysa Bondarenko, Executive director of Ukrainian Soil Partnership
• Representatives from private sector
14:20-14:30 – Questions and answers

Join the event here: https://fao.zoom.us/j/92190465906
Know more about World Soil Day: http://www.fao.org/world-soil-day/en/