hosting goods and services vital to ecosystems and human life. However, about 33% of global soils are moderately or highly degraded, i.e. due to unsustainable management practices. In this context, the practice of sustainable soil management (SSM), an integral part of sustainable land management that can help addressing poverty eradication, agricultural and rural development, promoting food security and improving nutrition, should be promoted. Soil management is sustainable if the supporting, provisioning, regulating, and cultural services provided by soil are maintained or enhanced without significantly impairing either the soil functions that enable those services or biodiversity. Building on this definition, the Global Soil Partnership compiled a list of principles to promote SSM and to provide guidance to all stakeholders on how to translate these principles into practice, be it for farming, pastoralism, forestry or more general natural resources management. These general accepted, practically proven and scientifically based principles are the Voluntary Guidelines for Sustainable Soil Management (VGSSM), which are of voluntary nature and are not legally binding.

SSM strongly contributes to collective efforts towards climate change adaptation and mitigation,  combating desertification and promoting biodiversity, and therefore has specific relevance to the United Nations Conventions. In the framework of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification

(UNCCD), the practice of SSM can facilitate the achievement of a land degradation neutral world, combating desertification and mitigating the effects of drought. Looking at the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, SSM also helps achieving targets on restoring degraded soil and implementing resilient agricultural practices that progressively improve soil quality and minimize soil contamination. By contributing to reverse and prevent desertification/land degradation, the practice of SSM is in line to the objectives of the COP13.