World Soil Day was celebrated in multiple locations in 2014. In Rome, over 200 participants discussed soils and family farming to launch the International Year of Soils. In New York, dignitaries gathered at the UN to celebrate the first World Soil Day. Thailand hosted celebrations over three days in Bangkok. Events also took place in over 80 countries worldwide, organized by groups like schools, universities, and soil institutes. A website and campaign materials publicized World Soil Day and its importance in multiple languages. World Soil Day 2015 was launched with a new dedicated website and combined with an International Year of Soils closure event.

1. Isabelle Verbeke

2. World Soil Day at FAO HQ
• The Rome event: "Soils, a foundation for family
farming" and launch of the IYS.
• Key speakers from various sectors: governments,
academia, international organizations and the private
sector.
• More than 200 participants
• The general consensus
highlighted that all
stakeholders stand united
and will work together to
make this International Year
a success.

3. World Soil Day in New York
• Eminent dignitaries gathered at the UN
headquarters in New
York City to celebrate
the first UN World Soil Day.
• Co-organized by FAO, the
permanent Missions
of Qatar and Thailand.
• Special message from the UN Secretary General,
Ban Ki-moon (prepared by GSP Secretariat).

4. World Soil Day in Thailand
• The Royal Thai Government celebrated for three days WSD in Bangkok
• Organized by the Land Development Department of the Ministry of
Agriculture and Cooperatives of Thailand

5. World Soil Day Celebrations worldwide
• 80 countries registered their events via a
tracking tool (GSP website)
• World Soil Day campaign material widely used
• Diverse groups including kindergarten and
elementary school students, university
graduates, museums, and soil institutes
organized WSD events in their home countries.
• Compilation of the first World Soil Day photo
gallery (more than 150 photos directly sent by
organizers of WSD events).

7. Campaign material
• Campaign material was distributed and sent
for main celebrations worldwide.
• High definition files of diverse high quality
communication material were made
available for download.
• Languages included English, French, Spanish,
Turkish, Hungarian, Russian.

8. Campaign material
• Megaposter (official WSD poster in 6 languages
in various formats)
• WSD Logo (available in several languages)
• Megabanner (160*40 cm)
• T-Shirt
• Infographic
• Posters and Cards (6 posters/cards in various
formats and more than 6 languages)
• Video
• Web banners & buttons

9. Infographics

10. Others

12. World Soil Day in pictures worldwide

16. Press coverage
• More than 40 articles in specialized and non
specialized press for WSD2014
• Bbc News, National Geographic, YARA,
Farming first, Yahoo news, IFDC, the
Guardian, Daily times, CNN, Huffington Post

17. Web traffic (1)
• Comparaison WSD 2013 vs WSD 2014

18. Web traffic (2)

19. WSD2015
• New dedicated website :
www.worldsoilday.com/2015
• Outside GSP website, but prepared and
managed by the GSP
– Background
– FAQ’s
– Campaign material
– Worldwide events

20. WSD2015
• On 4th December, combined with the IYS
Closure event.
• Launch of the SWSR
• High level event
• Theme: “Soils, a solid ground for life”

21. WSD2016
• Theme:
“Soils and pulses: symbiosis of life”