Multimedia
Policy briefings
Publications
International Yearbook of Soil Law and Policy 2019
"The Global Soil Partnership: Tackling Global Soil Threats Through Collective Action" (pp. 197–221)
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FAO.org
Soil governance
Policies and strategies
Soil governance concerns policies and strategies and the processes of decision-making by nation states and local governments on how the soil is utilized.
What is the governance of soils about?
Governing the soil requires international and national collaboration between governments, local authorities, industries and citizens to ensure implementation of coherent policies that encourage practices and methodologies that regulate the usage of the soil resource to avoid degradation and conflict between users.
The Global Soil Partnership (GSP) of the United Nations was created in 2012 to fill a global gap in soil governance. The main purpose is to reverse the growing trend of soil degradation through the promotion of sustainable soil management. The GSP has adopted three different but interrelated approaches to address the current global soil issues: i) policy advocacy ii) development of technical tools, and iii) programmatic actions focused on the implementation of sustainable soil management practices at field level.
GSP focused its activities on building a strong network with multi-stakeholder partners. The first step to achieve this was the establishment of eight regional soil partnerships (RSP) in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe, including the Eurasian subregional soil partnership, Near East and North Africa, North America, and Pacific. In total, the regional partnerships are composed by 194 countries also FAO member states. Almost all indicated a person to be appointed as focal point to represent the country to the GSP. In addition, the Intergovernmental Technical Panel on Soil (ITPS) was established. This panel is composed of 27 top soil scientists that demonstrated their technical capacity to analyse global problems. By using their expertise, the first-ever report on the Status of the World’s Soil Resources was prepared in collaboration with a large number of experts with the the desire to include soil-related targets and indicators in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Noting the lack of standard technical procedures, the GSP devoted more attention to the formulation of policy and technical guidelines, such as the revised Global Soil Charter and the Voluntary Guidelines for Sustainable Soil Management (VGSSM). Major efforts have focused on addressing recognised global threats to soil health by improving knowledge and implementation of the VGSSM as a way to halt soil degradation and on the implementation of the International Code of Conduct for the Sustainable Use and Management of Fertilizers. To ensure that policy makers and governments are fully aware of soil and ecosystem services and include them in policy frameworks, the GSP has prepared the legal platform called SoiLEX to provide users with a selection of the most relevant legal instruments for soil protection and conservation, grouped by the type of degradation process they address or by the tools they provide.
Latest stories
Advancing international soil governance for sustainable development
30/03/2022
A special issue on soil governance of the peer-reviewed journal “SoilSecurity” was published this month with expert contributions from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Global Soil Partnership’s (GSP) working group on soil legislation..
SoiLEX: a global database on national legislation on soil protection
13/01/2021
SoiLEX is a global database that aims to facilitate access to information on existing legal instruments on soil protection and prevention of soil degradation. The platform was created in coordination with FAOLEX, which is to date one of the largest databases of legal frameworks and instruments related to natural resource management, food and agriculture.
Mainstreaming gender for sustainable soil management
13/03/2020
The online discussion ‘Mainstreaming gender for sustainable soil management’, held on the FAO Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum) from 23 September to 25 October 2019 aimed to collect views from a wide range of stakeholders about the relations between gender equality and sustainable soil management (SSM).
In action
Protocol for SSM
Towards a database of best SSM practices
The protocol provides a framework for practitioners, farm advisors and local government officials to assess if current management practices are sustainable and what potential actions can make conditions improves.
Fertilizer Code
Sustainable use, management standards
The Code provides a locally-adaptable framework and voluntary set of practices to serve the different stakeholders that are directly or indirectly involved with fertilizers, setting out roles, responsibilities, and actions.
Voluntary guidelines
Sustainable soil management for all
The guidelines set out scientific principles and policy recommendations for the responsible governance of soils. The guidelines inform decision-making at higher levels and encourage SSM implementation at all levels.
Global Symposia
Global Symposia
Science-policy meetings
The Symposia have been tackling different soil threats from 2017 onwards.
Webinars
Enhancing soil governance
Regional and national examples of soil legislation development
9 march 2023
The objective of this webinar is to analyze in detail different legislative strategies for sustainable soil management and, taking as an example the development of the novel Chinese legislation on Black Soil protection...
SoiLEX webinar
Soil Governance and SoiLEX
13 January 2021
SoiLEX facilitates the search for national soil legal instruments, the understanding of legal areas relevant to soil management and protection.
RECSOIL webinar
Recarbonization of global soils
17 June 2020
RECSOIL is an initiative to move the SOC agenda into action using the best tools and technologies available while being aware of the associated uncertainties.
Soil biodiversity webinar
A nature-based solution?
22 May 2020
This webinar aims to discuss the global status, gaps and multiple benefits of soil biodiversity as a key contributor in sustaining life in this planet.
Fertilizer Code webinar
Implementation of global standards
19 May 2020
The webinar discusses implementation modalities and allows different stakeholders to express their own views on the Code.