http://www.fao.org/globalsoilpartnership This presentation was made during European soil partnership meeeting that took place in Rome, italy at FAO HQ 17-18 March 2015. The presentation was made by Arwyn Jones, and it has the objective to present the Draft Implementation Plan ESP. ©FAO: http://www.fao.org

1. Pillar 2: Encourage Investment, Technical
Cooperation, Policy, Education, Awareness and
Extension
DRAFT IMPLEMENTATION PLAN ESP
Arwyn Jones
EUROPEAN SOIL
PARTNERSHIP

3. 3
Premise
Deficiency in education is the main underlying
cause of human-induced soil degradation.
Lack of societal awareness leads to political
reluctance to adopt measures to preserve and
enhance soil conditions.
Lack of investment hampers scale-change in
understanding.

4. 4
Pillar 2 Interlinkages
policy
technical
cooperation
extension
public
awareness
education
investment
Public awareness and education are crucial…….to convince policy
makers….. to support sustainable soil management, encourage
investment, develop support services and mechanisms for cooperation.

5. Issues
Scale

6. 6
Pillar 2 Implementation Plan
Establishment of WG @ ESP KO Meeting
JRC, May 2014
Pillar 2 PoA Approved July 2014
‘Awareness Raising/Pillar 2’ Working Group Workshop
@ JRC, 13-14 November 2014
22 participants (out of 35)
JRC Working Group on Soil Awareness and Education
European Network for Soil Awareness
European Land and Soil Alliance
EU Danube Strategy

7. Working Group
 Chairs: Arwyn Jones, (EC) Willie Towers (Scotland)
 Members: Francesco Malucelli (Italy), Frédéric Darboux (France),
Beata Houskova (Slovakia), Olaf Duewel (Germany), Gabriele Broll
(Germany), Svetla Rousseva (Bulgaria), Erika Micheli (Hungary), Frank
Lobnik (Slovenia), Christian Steiner (Austria/ENSA/Danube Strategy), Detlef
Gerdts (Germany/ENSA), Francesca Bampa (Ireland), Pieter Ploeg
(Sweden), Josef Kozak (Czech Republic), Dragana Vidojevic (Serbia), Pandi
Zdruli (Italy/Albania), Rachel Creamer (Ireland), Daro Montag (UK), Sigi
Huber (Austria/IUSS), Steve Hallett (UK), Saskia Keesstra (Netherlands),
Kathryn Alton (UK), Thomas Caspari (ISRIC, NL), Ronald Vargas (FAO),
IASS (Potsdam, DE), Jose Maria Rubio, (Centro de Investigaciones sobre
desertificación - CSIC, Universitat de Valencia), Florian Ballnus (EU Danube
Strategy)

8. 8
Pillar 2 Implementation Plan
European Soil Partnership established set up number of WG to
address specific recommendations.
GSP Pillar 2 Plan of action was endorsed in Rome in July 2014
with slightly revised text but heavily edited recommendations.
This results in a slight mismatch between actions at ESP KO and
adopted version of Pillar 2.
Should address all aspects of Pillar 2 or just focus on
awareness?

9. 9
Vision
A greater appreciation and understanding of the
value of soil at all levels of society.
Pillar Two underpins many of the actions under the other Pillars
by addressing the general lack of societal awareness of the
importance of soil in people’s lives and the well-being of the
planet.
Driven by policies.

10. 10
Approach
Establish temporary focus groups to develop implementation
strategy for each of the six elements of the Pillar 2
(taking into account the language and recommendations of the adopted plan of action)
•Define European focus of the issue
•Outline priorities
•Identify key players
•Promote best practices
•Encourage collaboration and exchange
Email exchange on draft implementation plan

11. 11
•Soil does not get the same attention as water, air, flora and
fauna….out of sight, out of mind.
•The increased urbanisation of society and detachment from the
food production process and the rural environment means that
the majority of people lack a fundamental understanding of
soil, functions or indeed, where their food comes from.
•Awareness drives politics and policies!
•Lack of EU policy framework does not help – although ‘political
profile’ of soil is probably as high now as ever.
Awareness Raising

12. Already much activity in EU…..

14. International Year of Soils 2015
•Opportunity to showcase the importance of soils, culminating in December 5, 2015
•Challenge organisations to be active
•Milestone event – lots and lots happening
•Maintain momentum - plan for post-2015!
World Soil Day
•Target events – risk of saturation? All focus on one day?
•Used to present progress of its implementation plan/ activities.
Global Soil Week
•Awareness raising event on Thursday
Expo 2015 Milan – Feeding the planet
•Food security theme – global event
•Significant outreach and political forum
•Encourage visibility of soil in national pavilions
•ENSA Conference

15. Expo 2015 Milan – Feeding the planet – Soil Events
•Soil festival – ‘Soil – where food comes from?
Public engagement event @ Cascina Triulza August 7-9/10 August
Civil Society Pavilion
Collaborating: FAO, Regions of Lombardia, Piedmonte and Emilia-
Romagna, ENSA, EFSA, NGOs….
•ENSA – JRC Soil Awareness Conference
21 October EU Pavilion + launch of Global Soil Biodiversity Atlas
22 October – JRC Ispra
•High-level conference, Expo Centre, October 20

16. Key Recommendations
Priority: ESP partners should jointly develop awareness
approaches which can be easily adapted to different languages,
cultures and scales of implementation. Under the auspices of the
GSP/ESP, governments should consider significant investment
and sustained funding to support large scale national outreach
programmes.
• Investment that is needed is well beyond that is
currently on offer
Priority: Soil community should promote strategies to engage
with society at large and work with professional
communicators and social scientists (e.g. major food
retailers).

17. Education
Documentation and tools need to be updated and developed to
supply training institutions with evidence based information on
the sustainable use of soils and the interaction with the broader
natural resource environment and other societal disciplines.
Introduce soil as a theme into the school curriculum from an
early age
Reverse the declining trend at tertiary level, at least through
its incorporation as a compulsory cross-cutting discipline.
Promotion of soil education to public society and soil users
through diverse and current communication channels.
Increased engagement with other disciplines

18. Policy Development
Politically, soil is important!
Development of clear messages for policy and decision
makes
While soil feature in many EU policies, no specific legal
instrument for the moment. However, EU commitment to
Sustainable Development Goals, MEA, other policy areas ….
Many countries lack effective national policies and strategies
for soil protection. However, other countries very active – should
benefit.
But still key gaps in our knowledge and understanding of state
of soil (ecosystem services), trends and impacts.

19. Key Recommendations
Priority: Encourage and support global, EU, national, regional and local
policy development and monitoring.
Priority: Promote harmonised evidence base of the state of soil, trends,
associated pressures and their impact to identify areas that provide key
services and functions and those most at risk from soil degradation
processes – data and observation based? (Soil assessment in State of
European Environment 2015 only six pages!)
Priority: Engage soil ‘champions’ at all levels to ensure that soils are part
of the policy agenda.

20. 20
Extension
Soil extension services provide a vital link between soil users,
land managers and the science community. In essence, this is an
additional type of awareness raising but driven by specific
technical need.
Extension services need to interpret and present relevant
research-based information to stakeholders in an understandable
and usable form.
However, there is a large disparity in the extent, efficiency,
expertise and experience of extension services across Europe.

21. 21
Key Recommendations
Priority: Extension services should be supported and
expanded to reflect the broad range of services provided by soil
beyond the agricultural sector.
Priority: Farmer-to-farmer learning should be encouraged to
facilitate and disseminate knowledge as well as to earn trust
among soil users, supported by capacity building and awareness
programme.

22. 22
Technical cooperation
Cooperation should be encouraged between:
•partners who are mutually interested in each other (e.g. within
land management community)
•research institutions and national/pan-national research
programmes (e.g. H2020, national research programmes,
infrastructure development)

23. 23
Investment
There is a high interest by private investors to own
healthy and fertile soils.
Increased investment is a tangible product of
growing awareness on the importance of soil
resources.
Investments should target relevant skills and support
development and entrepreneurship among soil users.
More effective public and private investments are needed
at small and large scales.
Programmes should strive to raise rural quality of life,
standard of living, limit urban migration and help aging
rural population.

24. 24
Concluding remarks
• Pillar 2 is an ambitious initiative
• Broad range of issues give difficulties in coherent
implementation plan. Need to reflect national priorities.
• Not intended to replace existing initiatives but to encourage
and support them
• And to make them grow bigger
• And to share experiences
• Scale change in implementation – together with supporting
investment
• It won’t happen overnight; no dedicated resources.
Implementation plan under development.

25. 25
Thank You
arwyn.jones@jrc.ec.europa.eu