FAO Global Soil Partnership launches SoiLEX soil legislation database

The FAO Global Soil Partnership hosted a webinar on soil governance and launched the new FAO global database SoiLEX.

The SoilLEX database provides a global collection of up-to-date national legislation on soil protection, conservation and restoration, aiming at facilitating the understanding of the different legal areas relevant to soil management and protection as well as the exchange of experiences in soil governance between countries and regions.

Permanent Representative of the European Union to FAO, H.E. Alexandra Valkenburg opened the session and expressed the EU's strong support to the Global Soils Partnership and the new SoiLEX global database initiative. "The effects of soil degradation do not know borders. Today's launch of SoiLEX is relevant and important. The European Green Deal and its future Soil Strategy, together with the newly launched EU Soil Observatory, can provide inspiration and good examples," said Valkenburg.

Eduardo Mansur, FAO Director of the Office for Climate Change, Biodiversity and Environment, said the issue of protecting our soils and strengthening soil governance is more important than ever, given the needs of a growing world population.

You can learn more about the FAO Global Soil Partnership and FAO’s work on soils here.