The FAO Representation in Iran conducted a nationwide media campaign to celebrate World Soil Day and the closure of the International Year of Soils 2015 in order raise awareness and promote sustainable soil and land management in the country.

As degradation of land and forest landscapes in Iran have become an alarming issue due to the challenges in climate change and water scarcity, which consequently have resulted in serious soil erosion-related problems, the national Iranian media have been very attentive to follow the issue. In particular, the Iranian Agricultural Agency (IANA) has shown diligence by translating a series of reports and publications released by FAO on the matter for their sites.

Furthermore, with the growing attention paid to the issue that prevails with degraded land, the topic has become a sensitive point of focus for many relevant officials of the country. With the support and guidance of FAO, the national media has carried out various effective and insightful interviews on soil and land issues. 

Numerous articles were published in both Farsi and English to mark the event and the release of the Status of the Word's Soil Resources Report.  Daily newspapers that covered the topic included Tehran Times, Hamshahri, Khorasan, Jahan-e Eghtesad and Eteddal.

An op-ed by Mr. Serge Nakouzi, FAO Representative to the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), was published on 9 December on the front page of the Tehran Times in both English and Farsi. In the piece, Mr. Nakouzi discusses the findings of the FAO Report and the impact of soil degradation on agricultural productivity in Iran.

National news agencies also picked up on the story, which was covered by the Iranian Agriculture News Agency (IANA), Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), Mehr News Agency (MNA), Fars News Agency (FNA) and many more.

A number of online magazines such as Asr-e Iran, Iran Economics, Salamat (Health) News and Top Khabar (News), among others, shared the news across the internet.

In addition, five videos were uploaded and published on Aparat (Iranian video-sharing platform) and four of the year's official infographics were translated into Farsi and published on a national scale.

A number of well-attended activities took place across Iran to mark the World Soil Day.  On Friday, 4 December, oak tree advocates gathered in the western city of Khorramabad on Bam-e Lorestan hills to plant oak saplings.

The International Year of Soils may be coming to an end but, as Mr. Nakouzi underlined in his article, FAO is commited to assisting its Member States, including the Islamic Republic of Iran, through research and development (R&D), capacity-building with a major emphasis on training the trainers, policy advice, technology transfer and technical support and assistance well into the future.

The International Year of Soils consisted of series of fruitful activities that were brought to success by the Communications and Advocacy Unit of the FAO Representation in Iran without any additional costs to the Organization.