Report on the Asian Soil Partnership

Mr. Sompong NimchuarPermanent Representative of Thailand to FAO

IntroductionFebruary 2012

Establishment of the Asian Soil Partnership (ASP) through the Nanjing Communiqué

The partnership consists of the following countries:

• East Asia: China, DPR Korea, Japan, Mongolia and Republic of Korea• Southeast Asia: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia,

Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor Leste and Vietnam • South Asia: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan

and Sri Lanka

Countries without any focal points:

Brunei Darussalam, Maldives, Singapore, Timor Leste

ASP Governance

The Steering Committee

Chair: ThailandSecretariat: FAO RAP

Members from East Asia: Republic of Korea, Mongolia, (Japan to be confirmed)

Members from Southeast Asia: Cambodia, Thailand, IndonesiaMembers from South Asia:

India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka

Asian Soil Partnership Workshop 2015Priorities in order to preserve and increase soil health, and stop and revert soil degradation:

- Promotion of sustainable soil management at all levels and in all land use types;- Restoration/rehabilitation of degraded soils with focus on soil erosion, nutrient

imbalance, soil acidification, soil pollution, loss of organic carbon and soil salinity; and- Enhancement of soil information by using state of the art methods of digital soil

mapping and advocating for having national soil information systems.

Call for investment on the promotion of sustainable soil management.

a pre-condition for achieving sustainable development.

Decision to proceed with the development of a Regional Implementation Plan for a horizon of five years

Zero-order draft Document shared with the Focal Points of the

Asian Region

First-order draft

Second-order draft

Proof reading

Implementation Plan ready for execution

Exchange of feedback

GSP Secretariat – Focal Points

GSP Secretariat

GSP Secretariat

GSP Secretariat

Recommendations from the Plans of

Action

Priorities from the AsSP Workshop

Bangkok, May 2015Finalization of the document

Exchange of feedback

GSP Secretariat – Focal Points

Inputs from individual countries:

- Priorities- Implementation activities

per pillar

Coordination with the working group of each pillar

ASP Implementation Plan

Current stage

Current stage

ASP Secretariat

ASP Secretariat

ASP Secretariat

ASP Secretariat

ASP Secretariat

Activities Performed

IYS activities

• Introduction to a number of basic measures of quality control and management in the “small” soil laboratories of South-East Asia.

• Harmonization of analytical methods between the different laboratories in order to reach standardization at the regional scale.

South-East Asia Laboratory NETwork (SEALNET) workshop

Future planning 2016-2017• Regional Implementation Plan ready for execution (September 2016)• Asian Soil Partnership annual workshop (October 2016)• Trainings related to the implementation of SEALNET:

1. ‘Understanding the chemistry of soil analysis to increase the quality of your results’ that will be managed by Jean-Louis Duprey from IRD (France) (3 to 5 days, in Bangkok, Thailand);

2. ‘Standardisation of soil analysis interpretation in South-east Asia’ that will be managed by Phil Moody from ASPAC (Australia) (3 days, in Vientiane, Laos);

3. ‘Efficient management of a soil analysis laboratory’ (3 days) that will be managed by Dr Phai Duy Do from SFRI (Vietnam) (3 days, in Hanoi, Vietnam).

• SAARC Regional training on Climate change impact on soil carbon storage and turnover under different land use systems and adaptation strategies.

• International Symposium “Healthy Soils, a basis for sustainable development” October 2016, Beijing China

Thanks for your attention