2019 Mid-Year Report
Soil, Desertification & Sustainable Agriculture Specialist Group Prepared by Specialist Group Chair Dr. Irene Heuser
I. Activity Updates
The Specialist Group on Soil, Desertification and Sustainable Agriculture (SG SDA) was very active in recent years investigating and discussing options for an international instrument for soil, reviewing and assisting with drafting of national soil law, and discussing the legal aspects of land degradation neutrality (LDN) with UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) Secretariat, international environmental law groups and soil science groups. The concept of LDN was introduced at Rio+20 by UNCCD and has since been discussed at the various conferences, including especially the Global Soil Week events and UNCCD COPs.
SG SDA members represented the Specialist Group at a number of global events and publications during 2018 and 2019, including a contribution to the IUCN Technical Brief on Land Degradation Neutrality (with IUCN Dryland Initiative).
SG SDA members are involved as editors and advisory board members and contributing chapters to the 2018 and 2019 publications of the International Yearbook on Soil Law and Policy (IYSLP, Springer publication).
Five members of the SG SDA participated in a workshop in Berlin in September 2018 on “Improving international soil governance”.
In August 2018, SG SDA Members participated at a Workshop about “Implementing LDN in Africa: Means, legal instruments and institutional challenges?“, organized in cooperation between the German Environment Agency (UBA), the Konrad-Adenauer Stiftung – Climate Policy and Energy Security Program for Sub-Saharan Africa, the The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ) and the University of Nairobi in Nairobi, Kenya. In September 2017, SG SDA member participated at the Workshop “Legal instruments for the effective protection and sustainable management of soils,” organized in cooperation between the German Environment Agency (UBA), the Konrad‐Adenauer Stiftung - Climate Policy and Energy Security Program for Sub‐Saharan Africa ‐ and the Makerere University and Kampala International University in Kampala, Uganda.
During 2018 and 2019 SG SDA members contributed to national environmental law reform initiatives.
SG SDA members contributed to, and prepared several publications (see II.).
The priority areas includes (next to specific topics) activities concerning the following goals:
Goal 1: Continue to implement the work of the former SGSSD based on the parameters of the first “Soil” Resolution of the IUCN World Conservation Congress, Amman Jordan 2000, which requests the IUCN Environmental Law Program – “in its development of legal guidelines and explanatory material, and investigation into a global legal instrument for the sustainable use of soils, to pay particular attention to the ecological needs of soil and their ecological functions for the conservation of biodiversity and the maintenance of human life”.
Goal 2: Assist individual countries with soil legislation reform, and related legislation and policy, as well as with the implementation (principal areas of interest include Northeast and Central Asia).
Goal 3: Investigating various options for an international instrument for soil (with special reference to the concept of LDN and Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 15) and discuss options with various international environmental law and soil science groups.
Goal 4: Communication and promotion of soil legislative reform (within IUCN and external environmental law and soil science groups) with special reference to LDN and SDG 15, including discussions about indicators to concretize the LDN Target.
Goal 5: Preparing indicative publications.
Goal 6: Presentations at environmental law forums, seminars, workshops etc
SG SDA has been very active at the national and international level (see publications and presentations below). As global interest continues to grow in the investigation of an international instrument for soil, and the legal aspects of the concept of LDN, a number of new and continuing initiatives in national soil legislation and policy reform that were discussed at the 1st World Environmental Law Congress in Rio and the World Conservation Congress in Honolulu, both in 2016, continued in the following years. In this regard, SG SDA members have been active at the global level (e.g., Global Soil Week) and the regional level (e.g., European area). At the national level the principal areas of interest include Iceland, China and Mongolia as well as EU countries.
There has been interaction with a number of organizations: European Commission (DG Environment), Federal German Environment Agency, Institute of Advanced Sustainability Studies Potsdam/TMG Think Tank, UNCCD Secretariat, World Association of Soil and Water Conservation, European Soil Conservation Society.
In 2018 and 2019 the Specialist Group is in a transition phase due to the inclusion of the topic of sustainable agriculture and SG SDA chair and member(s) changes. The SG SDA is still a member of IUCN Core Group collaborating with the IUCN Dryland Initiative Program.
II. Events & Publications
The SG SDA Members continued to be very engaged in publications:
Ian Hannam has prepared a chapter on “Soil legislation in Australia” for a Special Edition of the International Yearbook on Soil Law and Policy (2019), two chapters for the Yearbook 2019, one with Prof Rob Fowler on a critique of the report ‘Improving international soil governance’ and a separate chapter on ‘Aspects of a legal and policy framework for managing soil carbon sequestration’.
Dr. Harald Ginzky/UBA has been engaged in the “model legislation project” in Africa. The project by the German Environment Agency (UBA) and the Development and Rule of Law Programme (DROP), Stellenbosch University, funded by GIZ, is about “Mapping out options for a model legislation for sustainable soil management in Africa” (January 2019).
Ben Boer and Ian Hannam prepared Chapter 21 on “Land Degradation Law” in Jorge Viñuales and Emma Lees (eds) “Oxford Handbook on Comparative Environmental Law 2019”.
Volume 3 of the International Yearbook on Soil Law and Policy, published in 2018, focused on “urbanisation and sustainable management of soils”. Many SG SDA members contributed with chapters: o Maylis Desrousseaux et al: Artificialised land and land take: What policies will limit its expansion and/or reduce its impacts? o David Grinlinton: Sustainable management of urban soils: the New Zealand approach
Ian Hannam spent three weeks at the IUCN Environmental Law Centre in Bonn in April 2019 researching and preparing a paper on “a legal and policy framework for managing soil carbon sequestration”.
The SG SDA Members presented at the following events:
July 2018: 16th Annual Colloquium of IUCN Academy of Environmental Law on “The Transformation of Environmental Law and Governance: Innovation, Risk and Resilience” which took place in Glasgow at the University of Strathclyde Technology and Innovation Centre: o Ian Hannam gave a presentation on “Governance of pastoral lands” in a session on “Land Governance”
Global Soil week 2019 in Nairobi, Africa, addressing the interface of agriculture and soil
October 2018: Workshop of the Federal Environment Agency, Berlin, Germany, about “Strengthening International Soil Protection”. The international expert workshop brought together about 35 international experts to advance international soil protection and governance.
August 2018: Workshop about “Implementing LDN in Africa: Means, legal instruments and institutional challenges?“, organized in cooperation between the German Environment Agency (UBA), the Konrad-Adenauer Stiftung – Climate Policy and Energy Security Program for Sub-Saharan Africa, the GIZ and the University of Nairobi.
June 2019 Singapore: International workshop on “Food Science, Nutrition and Public Health”
III. Upcoming events, projects, or anticipated next steps
The focus of the future activities will be on the 2nd World Environmental Law Congress (WELC) in Rio in March 2020: Currently planning for a presentation on the soil law implications of the IPBES Assessment and the specific report on soils on the Panel "Species and Ecosystem Extinction Crises, Convention on Biological Diversity Post-2020, Sustainable Use of Soil and Habitat Protection", and maybe also a pre-WELC event on a "Paris Agreement Model" for soil protection.
World Conservation Congress (WCC) in Marseille in June 2020: Discussion about Soil Protection Law in the context of WCC Theme 9: "Plastic Pollution Crises: Soil, water and circular Economy"
In October 2019 a Workshop on “Legal governance for sustainable soil management to achieve land degradation neutrality”, organised in collaboration of the German Environment Agency (UBA), the GIZ India/Environment, Climate Change and Natural Resource Management Cluster, and the Centre for International Legal Studies, School of International Studies of Jawaharlal Nehru University (CILS), will take place in New Delhi, India. It will focus on the institutional and legal governance and incentives/mechanisms for the implementation of innovative solutions to address the LDN targets.
IV. Member Engagement
The Specialist Group currently has members from seven countries, including Australia, Germany, the United States, New Zealand, China, France, and Belgium. The SG SDA is still in the process of transition and inclusion of interested new members.