The 21st World Congress of Soil Science Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | 12 - 17 August 2018

1. Status of global soils: challenges for
sustainable development
Eduardo Mansur
Director - Land and Water Division
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
FAO

2. 2
Food security and nutrition for all!!!
FAO’s mandate!

3. Predicted world’s
population of over 9 bn
by 2050 will require
the provision of
enough good quality
food and water.

4. 4
• World hunger on the rise again
• To meet growing food demand, it is
necessary to develop more productive
and sustainable farming systems
• Undernourished people increased to
815 million in 2016
• 26.4 mil people displaced
each year
• 244 mil international
migrants
• 3/4 of the world's poor
depend on agriculture

5. Why promoting SSM?
Soil is the foundation
for agricultural
production and
depends on us to care
it

6. Why promoting SSM?
Soils are our
best ally for
climate change
adaptation and
mitigation

8. TODAY, 33% of land is moderately to highly degraded
mainly because of erosion, salinization, compaction,
acidification and chemical pollution

9. 9

10. Main soil threats
Detailed information are provided in
the Status of the World’s Soil Resources
report, (FAO and ITPS, 2015 -
http://www.fao.org/3/a-i5199e.pdf )

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13. 11 Basic principles:
MINIMIZE
- soil erosion
- soil structure degradation
- nutrients imbalance
- salinization, sodification and
alkalinization
- contaminants
- soil sealing is minimized.
- optimized and safe use of
agrochemicals
INCREASE
- surface cover
- soil organic matter
- water efficiency
- soil biodiversity
Sustainable Soil Management

14. How to boost the
practice of Sustainable
Soil Management?

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❖ A void on Soil
governance at global
level
❖ Soil Investment far
too low
❖Weakening of national
soil institutions
❖Gap on targeted soil
research
BEFORE 2012 |

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❖ Soil degradation, a
continuous serious threat
❖ Outdated soil information
at global and regional
levels
❖ Poor knowledge and
appreciation of soil
functions for life
BEFORE 2012 |

17. The Global Soil Partnership
promotes Sustainable Soil
Management
to improve soil governance at all levels to
support/enhance the provision of
essential
ecosystem services
2012

18. GSP in action

19. 19
GSP Pillars of Action
1. Promote sustainable management of soil resources and
improved global governance for soil protection and sustainable
productivity;
2. Encourage investment, technical cooperation, policy,
education, awareness and extension in soils;
3. Promote targeted soil research development focusing on
identified gaps, priorities and synergies among economic,
environmental and social dimensions;
4. Enhance the quality and availability of soil data and
information: collection, analysis, validation, reporting, monitoring,
integration with other disciplines;
5. Harmonization of methods, measurements and indicators
for the sustainable management and protection of soil resources.

20. Partners
GSP Secretary
Guided/
Advised by
Composed by
Facilitated by
Through
Plenary
Assembly
Regional Soil
Partnerships
http://www.fao.org/global-soil-partnership/en/
Since 2012

21. 21
REGIONAL SOIL PARTNERSHIPS

22. Intergovernmental Technical Panel on Soils
 Core of the GSP as it constitutes the scientific foundation
of it (science for decision making).
 To date, they have produced a very important number of
key scientific and normative publications.
 New members June 2018-June 2021.
 Scientific community is invited to play an active role in
various global assessments.

23. 3. Launch of the SOIL PORTAL in the 6 FAO
official languages

24. Normative work

25. 2. Two important new celebrations were endorsed by the
UN General Assembly in 2013

26. 4. Awareness raising material

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5. Technical publications and outreach

28. Investing on sustainable soil
management, providing multiple
benefits:
- Food security: food production,
nutrition and food safety.
- Climate change mitigation and
adaptation (resilience).
- Provision of ecosystem services and
biodiversity.
- Reducing degradation (LDN).
- Sustainable development (SDGs).
- Pollution free world: soil pollution.
- Poverty alleviation and rural
development.

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Capacity building
Capacity development activities in various soil topics (soil salinity management,
digital soil mapping, sustainable soil management, soil organic carbon mapping,
carbon sequestration, etc.) in Africa, Eurasia, North Africa-Near East, Latin
America, Asia
Different modalities of training: on the job training, summer courses, GSP
education platform for online courses, etc.

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• 110 Countries
• 250 Soil Experts
• 65% Global
Coverage
• 87% Developing
World Covered
GSP CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME

31. 6. Advocacy for the inclusion of
soil into the SDGs

32. 7. Establishment of technical networks
• the Global Soil Information System (GLOSIS)
• the International Network of Soil Information
Institutions (INSII)
• The Global Soil Laboratory Network (GLOSOLAN)
• The International Network of Black Soils (INBS)

33. 8. Establishment of the Glinka World Soil
Prize

34. 9. As part of the implementation of the
VGSSM: Organization of Global Symposiums

35. 35

36. Each Symposium aimed to
identify concrete activities to
implement under the
framework of the VGSSM

37. Main outcome of the GSOC17:
The 8 recommendations in the outcome document of the symposium are
being addressed through these activities:
- Invest on capacity development and trainings on SOC
[GSP capacity development programme + GSOCmap]
- Develop guidelines for SOC monitoring
[in progress]
- Estimate the potential for SOC sequestration
[in progress]
- Implementation of the VGSSM
[in progress]
- Establishment of the International Network of Black Soils to prevent SOC
losses and prioritize soils with high SOC
[in progress, establishment of the network]

38. The GSOC map will support
countries in reporting on SDG
15.3.1 on land degradation.
Global Soil Organic Carbon Map (GSOC)
How was the map developed?
Through support and involvement of
FAO member countries: bottom-up
approach. Every country develops its
own map under agreed specifications.

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http://www.fao.org/global-soil-partnership/pillars-action/4-information-and-data/global-soil-organic-carbon-gsoc-map/en/
GSOCmap

40. Outcomes GSOP18:CoCoFe & Global
assessment on soil pollution
A further step towards sustainable soil
management and for better management
of fertilizers.
To clearly understand the extent, the gaps,
what is being done and what needs to be
done to prevent, minimize and remediate
soil pollution.

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• Raise awareness on soil pollution threat to human health and the
environment
• Implement existing guidelines and regulations to prevent and
minimize soil pollution
• Capacity building (from soil pollution assessment to site
remediation)
• Implement a global assessment of the status of soil pollution using a
country-driven process according to the UNEA 3 declaration
Proposed activities for
implementation at the GSOP18

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What’s Next?

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• Implement the global and the regional implementation plans
• Implementation of the VGSSM
• World Soil Day 2018 “Be the solution to Soil pollution” including
the Glinka Prize 2018
• Establishment of the Global Soil Information System including
SoilSTAT
• Preparation of technical manuals on regional soil organic carbon
management, soil salinity management, soil restoration, soil
contamination and associated training activities
WORKPLAN | 2018 – 2019

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❖ Implementation of targeted
research activities on soil salinity
in Moldova, Ukraine, Uzbekistan,
Armenia and Belorussia.
❖ Capacity development on Soil
Organic Carbon mapping in Asia,
Africa, Latin America and Near
East.
❖ Project activities: online
consultations for the CoCoFe,
assessing the costs related to
soil loss, enhancing human
nutrition through soil nutrient
management; soil doctors
program, GROW project, etc.

45. Soil Doctors Programme
The programme aims to educate farmers
on soil science principles for practices
of sustainable soil management by
providing them with a set of educational
materials and a soil testing methods
(STM) manual for preliminary soil
analysis.

46. Global Symposium on Soil Erosion
Global Symposium on Soil Biodiversity
Global Symposium on SSM for nutrition-
sensitive agriculture (Soil Fertility)
2
0
1
9
2
0
2
0
2
0
2
1
Annual global symposium on one of the
major soil threats: coming years

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JULY – AUGUST | 2018
*All covers are temporary placeholders