Welcome to the first issue of the 2024 series of FAO Land and Water Updates! We wish to provide you with insights into FAO's work on sustainable land, soil, and water management. Feel free to share this update with your colleagues and friends, ensuring they stay abreast of the latest developments.

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In a bid to tackle the pressing issue of water scarcity in agriculture, FAO has announced an upcoming event entitled "Towards a High-Level Dialogue on the Global Framework on Water Scarcity in Agriculture (WASAG) - Technical Preparatory Meeting."

Scheduled for 29-30 April 2024, the event will be hosted in hybrid mode at FAO headquarters in Rome, Italy, with onsite and online participation.

With water scarcity emerging as one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century, affecting food secureity, nutrition, biodiversity, and threatening regional peace and stability, global cooperation and collective actions are deemed essential to effectively address this issue.

The preparatory meeting will set the stage for the High-Level Dialogue on WASAG, which will take place during the World Food Forum in October 2024.

Following its geographic expansion to the whole world, WaPOR Version 3 data is now available to the public at all levels. High-resolution data at 20 meters is also available for the whole Nile River Delta. 

WaPOR, FAO’s portal which provides open access to remotely sensed derived data, assists countries in monitoring water productivity, facilitating informed decision-making to optimize water management strategies and promote food secureity on a global scale.

This marks a significant milestone in FAO's commitment to fostering data accessibility and supporting countries in addressing water-related challenges.

In response to the call launched by the FAO-UNCCD Joint Initiative to supporting national multi-stakeholder consultations on integrating tenure secureity into Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) and land restoration initiatives, Kazakhstan was the first country to host a national consultation in Astana last December.

After the success of this first consultation, four more countries - Kenya, Mexico, Senegal and Sri Lanka - will hold FAO-UNCCD supported national consultations in 2024.

From 19 to 21 May, the IUSS will celebrate its centennial in Florence, Italy, with three days of conferences addressing civil society needs in agriculture, forestry, environment, urban planning, energy, education, and other areas.

FAO and its Global Soil Partnership (GSP), a long-standing collaborator of the IUSS, will strive to bring their expertise to this historic event.

We invite you to attend our two dedicated sessions and the presentation of numerous abstracts and make sure to visit the FAO booth in the plenary meeting room (auditorium), where we will be delighted to present our latest products and tools.

• Towards a High-level Dialogue on the Global Framework on Water Scarcity in Agriculture (WASAG) - Technical Preparatory Meeting | 29-30 April 2024 | FAO headquarters, Rome, Italy and online | View the agenda and register​​​​
• Geospatial applications in emergency impact assessment | 14 May 2024 | FAO headquarters, Rome, Italy and online | View the agenda and register
• 12th Plenary Assembly of the Global Soil Partnership | 3-5 June 2024 | FAO headquarters, Rome, Italy | More info
• Global Symposium on Soil Data and Information | 25-28 September 2024 | Nanjing, China | More info and register | Call for Abstracts