Presentation delivered during day 3 of the Global Soil Partnership Plenary Assembly – 5th Session, that took place at FAO Hq in Rome, Italy, from 20 to 22 June 2017. The presentation was made by Mr. Ronald Vargas, GSP Secretariat, FAO.

2. What is the way forward on this
topic?
Ronald Vargas
GSP Secretariat

3. SOIL CONTAMINATION: when the
concentration of a chemical or substance
is higher than would occur naturally but is
not necessarily causing harm.
Local
Diffuse
SOIL POLLUTION: when a chemical or
substance is out of place or present at
higher than normal concentrations that
has adverse effects on any nontargeted
organism
To recap

4. Soil contamination and pollution are threats recognized at the
global level…

5. What is our plan for addressing soil
contamination and pollution?

7. • Governments are encouraged to establish and implement regulations to
limit the accumulation of contaminants below established levels to
safeguard human health and well-being, and facilitate remediation of
contaminated soils that exceed these levels;
• Management of local soil contamination requires establishing background
levels, followed by testing, monitoring and assessing contaminant levels to
identify sites that are likely to be contaminated. Risk assessment, including
total cost assessment, and remediation should be applied to reduce risks to
humans and ecological systems;
• Identification of soils that are the most susceptible to the harmful effects
of diffuse pollutants is needed. Appropriate attention should be given to
reduce contaminant loads in these soils

8. • Information on contaminated soil sites should be available to the
public;
• Contaminated soils should not be used for food and feed production;
• Recycled nutrients originating from treated waste water or other
waste materials that are used as soil amendments should be properly
processed and tested to ensure they contain safe levels of
contaminants and plant available nutrients. For instance, organic
xenobiotics can pose a serious, incalculable and irreversible threat to
soil fertility and human health; and
• Outflows of flood water from paddy rice cultivation after applying
fertilizers and pesticides should be minimized to avoid of-site effects.

9. Way forward
1. Organization of the Global Symposium on Soil Contamination and
Pollution (2018), building scientific evidence for policy development;
2. Awareness raising campaing towards World Soil Day 2018: «Be the
solution to soil pollution»;
3. VGSSM: preparation of technical manuals on soil contamination and
pollution, including prevention, management, remediation and especially
setting contamination/pollution thresholds; establishment of
international working groups to support this work;
4. Advocacy for the establishmnet of policies to prevent, mitigate and
remediate contaminated/polluted soils.

10. Thanks for your attention