Soil Health 2024 Japan Workshop
「土壌の健康」についての国際ワークショップ

Soil health may be defined as the continued capacity of soil to function as a vital living ecosystem that sustains biological productivity, promotes air and water quality, and maintains plant, animal, and human health. This term may also be regarded as a tool to raise the general public's interest, improve their understanding of soil, and promote casual communication among various stakeholders by using the word "health" that is familiar to everyone to scientifically express the status of soil. Healthy soil is an essential foundation for achieving a sustainable food system. To feed the growing world population while minimizing the anthropogenic environmental load via soil, such as global warming, loss of biodiversity, and disruption of biogeochemical nitrogen and phosphorus cycles, we need to assess soil health using methods that are appropriate for the diverse conditions of soil, climate, crops, diet, culture, economy, etc., among different countries and regions.
In this workshop, we will invite nine experts to give lectures on their soil health studies conducted in different countries and regions. Based on this, we will share the current information and knowledge on soil health and exchange opinions in relation to its definitions, indicators, monitoring strategies, assessment methods, and how to utilize it in actual soil policy and agri-environmental policy. This Workshop will aim at:

• Learn the concept of soil health and its applications in different countries and regions
• Share the current information and knowledge, exchange opinions, and organize our understanding on soil health considering diverse conditions of soil, climate, crop, diet, culture, economy, etc., among different countries and regions
• Make a comparison sheet of soil health among countries/regions to find common ground as well as essential differences between them

This Workshop will contribute to the global activities of “International Decade of Soils 2015–2024” led by IUSS and celebrate the Centennial of IUSS. This Workshop will also contribute to the worldwide activities of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.