The Global Soil Partnership (GSP), the Eurasian Subregional Soil Partnership (EASP) and FAO in Uzbekistan organized jointly the Sixth EASP Plenary Meeting in Tashkent, Uzbekistan to promote sustainable soil management. Specifically, the aim of the plenary meeting was to renew EASP’s activities to promote sustainable soil use and management in Eurasian countries and to identify relevant priorities for these countries.

     At this event, representatives from 12 Eurasian countries discussed barriers and obstacles to the introduction of sustainable soil management practices in the region and agreed on measures to strengthen regional collaboration and knowledge sharing and to overcome identified problems. They have endorsed the Tashkent Communiqué which includes the commitments of the Eurasian Soil Partnership.

     Today a new work plan for the Eurasian Subregional Soil Partnership was discussed and agreed, as well as a new Chair and Vice-Chair were elected. The elected Chair is Murat Temirzhanov, Chairman of the Land Resources Management Committee of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the country’s focal point for the Global Soil Partnership. The Vice-Chair is Aliaksandr Chervan, Head of the Department of Soil Science and Geoinformation Systems of the Belarusian State University and national focal point for the Global Soil Partnership.

     Natalia Rodriguez Eugenio, coordinator of the Eurasian Soil Partnership, closed the meeting by saying “I am very grateful for the active participation of all focal points in this sixth plenary meeting of the Eurasian Subregional Soil Partnership. It was a very fruitful meeting and I am pleased to see that the governance has been renewed. We must now move forward together and more united than ever to implement the new work plan and address the major environmental challenges that are putting food security in the region at risk and threatening the health of our soils.”