The Nexus Solution to Global Existential Challenges (Soil Security Series)

Save Soil (Isha Outreach, IUCN Member), Aroura the Soil Security Think Tank, and IUCN WCEL are excited to co-host a 3-part panel discussion on Soil Security. As part of the larger Save Soil Soil Conversations series, this collaboration will explore soil as the single leverage point for addressing major global challenges of our time, highlighting rich, diverse stories of challenges and successes from around the world. Expert panelists will share their insights and on-ground experiences on how Soil Security can support accelerated implementation of restoration targets, biodiversity goals, and climate action.

 Soil Security is essential to sustaining biodiversity, restoring ecosystems, and enabling climate resilience. Yet, soil remains largely invisible in conservation policy and practice. As land degradation accelerates, its effects ripple throughout the biosphere, accentuating the urgent need to bring soil restoration into global conservation frameworks.

The Soil Security, a concept and framework developed by Professor Alex McBratney and colleagues from the University of Sydney, offers a holistic, local approach to soil assessment, stewardship and policy through five interconnected dimensions: Capacity ("What can this soil do?"), Condition ("How is this soil now?" often associated with Soil Health), Capital ("What is this soil worth?"), Connectivity ("Who cares and knows about this soil?"), and Codification ("What are the rules governing this soil?"). Albeit local, this framework enables science-based monitoring, governance, and restoration of soils, offering a grounded pathway to securing soil as a living entity and all the life that it supports at the regional, national, and international levels. 

Panel 1 - Soil Security: The Nexus Solution to Global Existential Challenges 

Abstract: 

Panel 1 of this series will explore the Soil Security Framework and the soil nexus approach within it, answering the question of why soil is at the heart of nature conservation for One Health. Expert panelists will present on measuring the Capacity and Condition dimensions of the Soil Security Framework, through their work in Africa, Indonesia, and Australia, three regions of the world with rich biodiversity facing high rates of soil and land degradation and ecosystems vulnerable to climate shocks. We will see how their work has brought about restoration and resilience at the landscape, social, and the ecosystemic level and the gaps that still need to be addressed and what we all can do to address them. 

Date, Time & Format: 

September 14, 2025

16:30 IST / 21:00 AEST / 14:00 EAT/ 13:00 CEST (1hr 10 mins)
(Convert to local time here)

Moderator:

Dr. Julio C. Pachón-Maldonado 

Postdoctoral Research Associate in Soil Security: Codification-Connectivity/Pedometrics, Sydney Institute of Agriculture & School of Life and Environmental Sciences, 

The University of Sydney

Julio Pachón is a soil scientist whose work centres on soil security, particularly the dimensions of Connectivity—people’s awareness and engagement with soils—and Codification—the legal and policy frameworks that protect them. He has collaborated with stakeholders across Europe, Africa, South America, North America, and Australia, combining field-based pedological experience with advances in digital soil mapping and policy analysis. His current focus is on self-assessment tools that allow farmers, policymakers, and land managers to connect directly with the latest soil research in a personalised way, while also exploring how artificial intelligence can assess legislation and strengthen governance frameworks that bring soils into global sustainability debates.

Speakers:

Christine Magaju

Soil and Land health Stakeholder Research and Engagement Lead,

CIFOR-ICRAF

IUCN Affiliate

Christine Magaju is a Soil and land health research and engagement lead working at CIFOR-ICRAF where she helps ensure that the Soil and Land Health theme’s research, data and evidence is accessible, useful and makes an impact. She has over 7 year’s experience working on soil and land health research, ecosystem health monitoring and stakeholder engagement with the aim of enhancing ecosystem resilience. Christine has experience leading farmer centered restoration activities, large-scale data collection efforts in the field, data analysis and ecosystem health monitoring. She also has extensive experience leading stakeholder engagement to enhance the use of soil and land health data and evidence.

Dr. Sandra Evangelista 

Postdoctoral Researcher, Soil Security Laboratory, 

The University of Sydney

Sandra holds a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture and a PhD in Soil Science, both from the University of Sydney. Her research focus is on developing quantitative frameworks to quantify soil security. She also collaborates closely with researchers in India on the development of an AI-based monitoring platform for soil carbon sequestration.

Dr. Wirastuti Widyatmanti 

Laboratory of Remote Sensing, Department of Geographic Information Science, Faculty of Geography, 

Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Wirastuti Widyatmanti is an environmental geographer and academic whose work focuses on spatial analysis, environmental monitoring, and sustainable development. She holds a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of New South Wales, Australia, and a Bachelor of Science from Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM), Indonesia, where she is currently Head of the Strategic Management Bureau and a lecturer in the Faculty of Geography. Her professional experience spans academic leadership, international engagement, and research on environmental change and resilience.

Dr. Wartini Ng

Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Soil Security & Soil Carbon

Sydney Institute of Agriculture & School of Life and Environmental Sciences

The University of Sydney

Wartini Ng is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow whose work advances soil security, with a focus on evaluating soil capacity and condition to safeguard soil into the future. Her research integrates advanced data analytics, proximal sensing, and machine learning techniques to improve the prediction of soil properties using large spectral databases. She now applies these approaches with digital soil mapping, strengthening the assessment of soil capacity and condition as a foundation for long-term soil security.