World Soil Day (WSD) is held annually on 5 December as a means to focus attention on the importance of healthy soil and advocating for the sustainable management of soil resources.

• The theme for 2025, “Healthy soils for healthy cities”, focuses on the role of soils in cities and the challenges posed by soil sealing and urbanization. Beneath asphalt, buildings, and streets lies soil that, if permeable and vegetated, helps absorb rainwater, regulate temperature, store carbon, and improve air quality. But when it’s sealed with cement, it loses these functions, making cities more vulnerable to flooding, overheating, and pollution.
• Urban soils provide essential ecosystem services:
  • they support food production,
  • filter water,
  • store carbon,
  • regulate temperatures, and
  • sustain biodiversity.
• Sustainable soil management practices, reduce erosion and pollution, and enhance water infiltration and storage. They also preserve soil biodiversity, improve fertility, and contribute to carbon sequestration, playing a crucial role in the fight against climate change.
• World Soil Day 2025 is a call to action. It invites policymakers, scientists, city leaders, civil society, and citizens everywhere to re-imagine urban spaces through their soils, ensuring that people and nature can thrive together in healthy green cities.

Background of a decade celebrating soils

• An international day to celebrate soil was recommended by the International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS) in 2002.
• Under the leadership of the Kingdom of Thailand and within the framework of the Global Soil Partnership, Food & Agriculture Organization(FAO) has supported the formal establishment of WSD as a global awareness raising platform.
• The FAO Conference unanimously endorsed World Soil Day in June 2013 and requested its official adoption at the 68th UN General Assembly.
• In December 2013, the UN General Assembly responded by designating 5 December 2014 as the first official World Soil Day.