The document outlines recommendations to strengthen soil governance, emphasizing the need for informed policy development and regular assessments of soil conditions. It discusses the FAOLEX database, which contains over 25,000 legal instruments related to soil, and highlights the need for improved legal frameworks to address soil pollution and erosion. Key actions include raising awareness of existing laws and enhancing the effectiveness of legislative approaches to protect and manage soils sustainably.

1. SoiLEX: Towards the
strengthening of soil
governance
Natalia Rodríguez Eugenio

2. Strengthen soil governance
• Recommendation 1: Politicians, policy advisors,
decision makers and associated agencies should
be informed to better appreciate the true
societal value of soil […] in order to encourage
the development of enabling frameworks for soil
protection or sustainable management in line
with the goals of the World Soil Charter
• Recommendation 2: Policy development
should be supported by regular and
harmonised assessments of the state of soil,
associated pressures, their impacts and trends to
prioritise and target interventions.

3. FAOLEX database
A comprehensive and
up-to-date legislative
and policy database
One of the world's
largest electronic
collection of national
laws, regulations and
policies on food,
agriculture and natural
resources management

4. Soils on FAOLEX
More than
25 000 legal
instruments
tagged with
“soil” in
FAOLEX
Are all
relevant?

5. Refined search in FAOLEX

6. Analysis of relevance
4250 legal documents
were analyzed to
assess:
1. their relevance to
soil protection
2. to determine
whether FAOLEX
keywords were
accurate or should
be modified.

7. Analysis result
Variety of legislative approaches used to deal
with different soil issues.
Most countries include regulations on soil in
general environmental legislation
Not effective to protect and
sustainably manage soils

8. Analysis result
Mainly soil erosion and
contamination
addressed in the
revised legal
instruments0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
%oflegalinstrumentsreviewed
Global Soil Threats addressed in legislation
Further analysis needed to refine
keywords and identify gaps

9.  Increase awareness of available legal
instruments among non-legal soil stakeholders
 Facilitate analysis of strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities, and threats of existing legal
instruments
 Easily accessible models of effective
soil legal instruments to guide country efforts to
develop new legislation
 Aid GSP efforts to implement SSM practices
supported by policy mechanisms
SoiLEX

10. SoiLEX
Soil pollution Soil erosion
Salinization
sodification
Nutrient imbalanceSOC loss
Soil acidification waterlogging Soil compaction
Soil sealing
Soil biodiversity
loss
Sustainable Soil
Management
Land tenure

11.  Review your country profile and:
Include missing/new legislations
Update links
Indicate which legal instruments are no
longer enforceable
 Contribute to regional legal analysis
 Support the continued update and
maintenance of SoiLEX
How to contribute?

12. The main legislative challenge
today is the need to strengthen
existing laws, increasing their
ambition, making them more
effective, and filling the gaps.
Thank you for your
attention!