SOS²

Save Our Soils    to    Sustain Our Societies
Sauver nOs Sols   pour   Sauvegarder nOs Sociétés 

Proposals
Propositions

The Soil Campaign 
Le Programme Mobilisateur Sols

Rabah Lahmar, Mireille Dosso, Alain Ruellan

01/2001 	                                                                                           Version 01
FOREWORD

The document “Platform for a Responsible and United World” (1993) underlines the necessity for a major campaign concerning soils. The objectives of this campaign are defined as: 

	 “ The campaign consists of encouraging, on a wide scale, the instigation of types of soil exploitation which do not, or as little as possible, reduce the biological, food production or hydraulic functions of soils. The massive degradation of soils today is at the origin of a considerable reduction in soil fertility, resulting in increasing desertification. The campaign will be carried out on a world wide basis, aimed at radically revising agricultural practices, mobilising large numbers of people, reducing food security in poor countries, promoting research into diversified ecosystem management and combining a number of large and small scale actions.”

In December 1995, in the document entitled “First proposals of the Soil Campaign”, Mirielle Dosso, Rabah Lahmar and Alain Ruellan proposed objectives and defined the priorities of such a campaign.

The Soil Campaign started in 1996. It is one of a number of programmes started by ‘The Alliance for a Responsible and United World’ to face the challenges of the 21st century. Its thoughts and actions aim at:

-	Changing attitudes to soil-related problems
-	Enhancing the "image" of soils
-	mobilising international solidarity against soil degradation.

This campaign is founded on a certain number of continually verified ideas and observations that can be formulated as follows:

•	The soil, with all its diversity and by virtue of its multipurpose character, is one of the most important bases for life on Earth, one of the major factors for balance of nature [see sheet 1]
•	Soils are at the heart of current human development problems; in particular, it they are at the core of the food and environmental concerns experienced nowadays world-wide. We notice, however, that the issue of soils has been evaded.
•	Soils, despite their scarcity, are still used in an unsustainable way by human societies; little is actually done to mitigate soil degradation or to improve the situation of degraded soils world-wide; local and global economic systems are accountable for this neglect.
•	This situation, which involves risks for both natural and human systems, is mostly due to ignorance in all spheres of society ‑ from the simple citizen up to the decision-maker ‑ about what soil is and why it is necessary to conserve it. Hence, soil is always absent from public debate, especially when social choices are concerned.
•	Soils are one of the challenges of the 21st Century. They should concern the human community as much as, or more than, for example, global climate change or the loss of biological diversity, to which, incidentally, soil degradation contributes in a non-negligible, yet so far ignored, way. Soils, on account of their fertility or their degradation, by their influence on the air, water and life, are a factor of potential conflicts for the 21st Century.
•	In order to turn soils into a factor of stability and peace, the human community should fulfil at all levels the conditions that enable different soil systems to fully accomplish all their functions, which are, in short, free services offered to the biosphere and humankind.

Proposals for Change
Protecting soils from degradation and using them in a renewable manner requires a real and profound transformation of humankind’s attitudes towards this resource.
The Soil Campaign considers that there are at least three indispensable and inseparable conditions for undertaking a transformation in the behaviour of the human community vis-à-vis soils:
•	to rehabilitate soil in popular culture;
•	to legislate on soil as an only slightly renewable resource indispensable for life, whose preservation is a indispensable;
•	to add soil to the universal heritage of humankind as an entity whose conservation requires complete human solidarity.
For each of these three points, the synthesis of different activities undertaken to date by the Soil Campaign, alone or with its partners, allows us to formulate a certain number of proposals for change.
Proposals likely to contribute to the emergence of behaviour and practices leading to the protection of soils against different types of degradation, and the rehabilitation of degraded soils. 

These proposals represent the main body of this document. They are developed in the following pages and subject to debate. They are summarised below.

The main proposals of the Soil Campaign are as follows:

I. With regards to the rehabilitation of soil in popular culture:

A. In the domain of conventional education:

1.	Setting up a teaching system that ensures a Minimum soil-related Knowledge, Indispensable for all Citizens of the planet: The Pedological MKIC.
2.	Setting up harmonised higher education curricula concerning the soils, which ensure a Common Compulsory Knowledge Basis for all soil-related disciplines.
B. In the domain of popular education:
3.	Setting up and monitoring innovative educational practices based on the respect of diversity: drawing from the diversity of knowledge, controlling the diversity of teaching, information and communication resources, and continuously adapting the process to situations.
C. A monitoring and co-ordination system for soil-related educational endeavours:
4.	Setting up an analysis, support and co-ordination system for the whole set of educational experiences.
D. A strong symbol:
5.	Setting up the World Soil Day.

II. With regards to the legal protection of soils:

A. At the local, regional or national level:

6.	Setting up and enforcing regulations and judgements based on a broad participatory process involving all stakeholders, and notably the representatives, the authorities, and also the soil users themselves, as well as the scientific community and the civil society. The considerations should be based on basins or geographical units, rather than political units.

B. At the international level:
7.	Establishing a set of binding rules, such as an international agreement on the sustainable utilisation of soils and land management. The ratification by all States of such an instrument is not only necessary, but urgent.
C. Achieving transformations:
8.	Setting up assistance mechanisms in order to facilitate the transformations of different soil-related activities, in such a way as to respect the conservation of soils.

III. With regards to world solidarity for the conservation of soils:

A. Mobilisation of knowledge concerning the conservation and improvement of soils:
9.	Constituting Soil Databases ‑ SoilDBs and their networking.
B. Mobilisation of human solidarity funds for soil conservation, restoration, improvement, and building: 
10.	Setting up National Soil Funds: NSF.
11.	Setting up a World Soil Fund: WSF.

Implementing Changes

Accomplishing the objectives described here relies on the mobilisation of a large number of actors, people and institutions. The soil question concerns the simple citizen as much as the decision-makers and public, private, national and international institutions.

Concretely, we must

1)	Make all organisations take these proposals into account, whether they are governmental or non-governmental institutions, and in particular those concerned with environmental and development questions.
2)	Work towards coherence in the actions, organise the co-ordination and the mutual help between those working towards these objectives. These actions must be carried out at three levels, local, national, international. 

I

The rehabilitation of soils in popular culture:
Educating, informing and communicating: An absolute priority.
Furthermore, a strong symbol: The World Soil Day.

One of the findings of the Klingenthal Soil Symposium (held in May, 1998) [see sheet 2] was that there have been several cultural references concerning soils in history, and that some of them still exist in the remains of aboriginal cultures. In the diverse representations of ancient human societies, soils, by virtue of their food production function, have occupied a privileged position. They have contributed toward shaping the lifestyles and thinking of these societies. Social systems then reflected the condition of the pedological systems and vice-versa; the management of soil fertility was at the heart of this connection. Later on, attempts to control the biomass production function of the soils by virtue of science and technology; urban development and the differentiation between city-countryside, and finally the widespread teaching of standard agronomy have all ended up by splitting societies from the land and from the original culture associated to it.
The result is nowadays that, despite the considerable accumulation of scientific knowledge on soils:
1-	The teaching of soil-related knowledge at primary, secondary and university level has not evolved a lot, and it has even regressed. Moreover, in most countries of the world, it is completely absent from primary education. There is almost general agreement about the failure of higher education on Soil Science; reality shows that it does not have an impact on the students’ professional life. This failure is related in particular with the fact that soil is not taught as a natural milieu, and neither as a social, economic, cultural and historic reality.
2-	Information and communication systems, nowadays attracted by environmental issues, elude the soil, as if it did not play any environmental role.
3-	Society, as a whole, continues to ignore soil.

The rehabilitation of soil in everyone’s culture requires setting up educational strategies that combine teaching, information and communication, turning the soil into a both an attractive issue and a concern, as was recommended at the Prague Conference (August 2000). This attraction has to do with its beauty, its wonder, its diverse morphology, its distribution in landscapes and its links to humankind and to all forms of life, as well as to rocks, air, water, and so on. The concerns have to do with the economic, social and political costs provoked by widespread negligence in soil management.
Concretely, this strategy needs to seek:

A. In the domain of conventional education:

1. Setting up a teaching system that ensures Minimum soil-related Knowledge, Indispensable for all Citizens of the planet: The Pedological MKIC.

The Pedological MKIC is necessary on the one hand in order to rehabilitate soil in popular culture, and, on the other hand, in order to consolidate the need to preserve it.
This knowledge should be acquired in two stages:
A first stage starts in the kindergarten, or at least at the beginning of primary (compulsory) education. It seeks on the one hand to lead children to make direct contact with soil and to undo parents’ prejudices such as: “Do not get dirty with mud!”, and, on the other hand, to help them to integrate soil in their imaginary representations. All this needs to be accomplished with the assistance of appropriate tools, according to each person's language and culture [see sheet 3].
The second stage intervenes in the secondary school. It involves stirring up the need to know and protect the soil, with the support of the naturalist approach to soil, namely, soil as a structured natural milieu. This stage enables discovering pedological systems and their multipurpose nature, as well as the links between the soil and the diversity of life forms and milieus. Likewise, it needs to show, by means of concrete examples, the social and economic consequences of good and bad soil management practices.

2.  Setting up harmonised higher education curricula concerning soils that ensure a Common Compulsory Knowledge Basis for all soil-related disciplines.
Curricula that lead to degrees that enable the practice of soil-related trades, either in the domain of scientific research or in operational milieus, should ensure the same level of compulsory knowledge. This involves training in Civil Engineering, Water and Forest Engineering, Agronomy, Ecology, Environment Sciences, as well as in Topography, Urban Planning, Architecture, Land-Use Planning, Landscape Architecture, Archaeology, Social Sciences (notably Economy and Sociology), etc. This is about establishing common knowledge for all these disciplines.
These teachings should involve not only the fundamental and practical aspects of Soil Science, but also the historic, cultural, social and economic features.

B. In the domain of popular education:
3.	Setting up and monitoring innovating educational practices, based on the respect of diversity: drawing from the diversity of knowledge, controlling the diversity of teaching, information and communication means, continuously adapting the process to the situations.
In practice, and according to experience, popular soil education requires a range of complementary tools, adapted to social, economic, cultural and historic settings. These can include:
•	Conferences addressing the public, at different occasions and at different places; training courses and seminars addressed to specific audiences (practitioners, instructors, teachers, etc.). A continuous training system could be envisaged, involving several levels.
•	In-the-field visits that enable seeing, touching, feeling, etc., discovering the reality of soil.
•	Fixed or travelling expositions.
•	Publications, including the written press, comics, children stories, awareness-raising leaflets, etc.
•	Radio and television programs.
•	Audio and video products, CD-ROMs, Web sites (distance learning).
This is thus a major operation that requires strong mobilisation and substantial means. Information and communication systems should be involved in order to launch and monitor the endeavours and to disseminate the results of the experiences as they evolve. [see sheet 4].
Moreover, for this educational endeavour to succeed, the following requirements need satisfying:
•	Strengthening the initiatives of individuals and non-governmental organisations involved in the domain of soil education.
•	Networking these initiatives and working in close collaboration with the “Soil Education and Public Awareness” Commission of the International Soil Science Commission, national scientific bodies, Pedagogues, Artists, Sociologists, Economists, Historians, Archaeologists, Anthropologists, etc., in order to design and prepare the curricula and the didactic materials.
•	Stirring up the interest of the media, governmental agencies, non-governmental organisations, and national, regional and international organisms dealing with childhood, education and culture, international co-operation, research, etc. (whose priorities should be re-discussed).

C. A monitoring and co-ordination system for soil-related educational endeavours:
4.	Setting up an analysis, support and co-ordination system for the whole set of educational experiences.
Education is a major issue and society must question itself continually, notably through the teacher-learner relationship and who teaches what to whom. All educational endeavours, as a whole, should be supported by a monitoring and co-ordination system, which, in particular, should be in charge of:
•	continuously analysing successful and unsuccessful educational initiatives undertaken in a range of contexts, and suggesting amendments and improvements;
•	creating adequate conditions for the exchange between the producers of information useful for the educational process (scientists, technicians, holders of popular knowledge, etc.), the people in charge of designing and preparing pedagogical material, and soil education practitioners;
•	creating the conditions for the exchange of experiences between the different actors involved in educational endeavours, in different contexts.

D. A strong symbol:
5.  Setting up the World Soil Day.
Just as the World Food Day, the World Water Day, the World Tree Day, we suggest establishing a World Soil Day.
This day will be an occasion for world-wide scientific and cultural events and for debates on soil issues. It will also enable carrying out state-of-the-art reviews on the progress of all soil-related undertakings, at all levels, by all the stakeholders: governments, NGOs, international agencies, etc.
This day will be a real occasion for mobilising, in addition to the stakeholders directly involved, information and communication systems, educational systems, and artistic milieus world-wide. This is also a way to popularise soil and its issues as soon as possible.
Two dates are suggested:
•	8 March. This coincides with the World Women’s Day, since in many cultural and religious references, soil, land and woman are associated ‑ linked by fertility, goodness, etc. The concept of Mother Earth of all living beings is shared by a number of cultures.
•	21 March, the first day of Spring in the Northern Hemisphere. 1st day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, 1st day of autumn in the Southern, two important stages in the many life cycles in which soil is intimately linked.

II
The duty to conserve soils.
The protection of soils is a precondition for peace and prosperity

Soil is a limited resource; it is a determining factor of food security and environmental health world-wide, and it should be subject to the duty of good management.

We live and we grow on a globe whose soil resources are physically limited in space, but also in time, on account of their slow recovery rate.

Soils are fixed in geographical space, but, taking into account their multipurpose nature (see Box), all soil management, even at the local level, has global consequences that affect all the other life forms of the planet. Indeed, the flows of solid, liquid and gaseous matter that reach or leave the soil in a given place of the world cross boundaries ‑ these can be the geographic limits of plots, municipalities, provinces, countries and even continents.

Therefore, in order to increase the likelihood for world food security and environmental quality ‑ as a precondition for social stability, peace and prosperity ‑, it is necessary to adopt utilisation forms that transform soils and their functions as little as possible, or at least that do not lead to irreversible degradation.

Since private property rights and national sovereignty are both exercised over soils, regulatory systems are required at all levels ‑ local, national or regional, and global ‑ in order to redirect current human activities towards sustainable soil utilisation forms.

In order for these regulations to be efficient, they need to draw their strength from local, national or regional levels and from legislation rooted in popular awareness and demands, as was recommended at the Prague Conference (August, 2000). At global level, they need to draw on the acceptance by national states and by all stakeholders of the obligation of preserving living conditions on Earth, namely, on the acceptance of the principle of the prevalence of good soil management over ownership rights or over the exercise of sovereignty.

Regulations should first seek to conserve and maintain a balance between the different functions of soil and prevent conflicts over its utilisation, and, in extreme circumstances, give priority to the conservation of all soil ecological functions (production, transformation, regulation, and genetic reserve functions), which are essential for maintaining natural balances and the diversity of life.

Concretely, we propose:

A.	At local, regional or national levels:

6. Setting up and enforcing regulations and judgements based on a broad participatory process involving all stakeholders, and notably the representatives, the authorities, and also the producers themselves, as well as the scientific community and civil society. Considerations should be based on basins or geographical units, rather than political units.

B.	At international level:
7. Establishing a set of binding rules, such as an international agreement on the sustainable utilisation of soils and land management. The ratification by all States of such an instrument is not only necessary, but also urgent.
It should be recalled that the need to protect soils was felt long before the seventies. However, it was only in May 1972 when the Council of Europe adopted the first soil charter ever: The European Soil Charter. It was followed almost ten years later by the World Soil Charter (November, 1981) drawn up by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). The World Charter on Nature, adopted by the UN Assembly in October, 1982, devotes just a few articles to soils. Yet all these documents have no juridical value ‑ they just state principles or formulate recommendations. Therefore, they will not be followed by any effect.
Since the Rio Summit (1992), the international community has three international law agreements that cover soil-related issues, but no convention on soils as an entity and a resource with all its dimensions. However, from 1972 to 1996, a number of recommendations were made ‑ particularly in Europe ‑ for creating a binding world-wide juridical instrument for soil protection.

In 1997, civil society launched an initiative to creating an international convention on sustainable soil use, better known as the “Tutzing Initiative for a Soil Convention” ‑ TISC. This initiative was rapidly supported by the scientific community and by a number of NGOs and the active support of the Soil Campaign, the Alliance for a Responsible and United World, and the Charles Léopold Mayer Foundation [see sheets 5 and 6].

The TISC is currently subject to debate. It is encouraging many other initiatives in Europe, and notably among local authorities. The latest is the proposal for an “Soil Alliance for Local Authorities”. Moreover, some proposals are being put forward in order to turn the current United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (CCD) into a Convention on Soils. The Commission on Environmental Law (CEL) of IUCN (The World Conservation Union) has set up the Sustainable Soils Working Group (SSWG) in order to study the feasibility of a soil protection instrument. The Amman resolution (October, 2000) confirms this will [see sheets 7, 8 and 9].

The SC is participating in the construction of TISC and calls for support for all the activities it is organising until the final goal of a soil convention is achieved.

C. Achieving transformations:

8. Setting up assistance mechanisms in order to facilitate the transformations in the different activities in relation to soil, in order to respect the primacy of soil preservation.

As long as the utilisation of soils is subject to the constraint of sustainability, deep modifications could be undertaken in a number of sectors (namely, agriculture, industry, urban development, tourism, craft-making, services, leisure, etc.), as well as in their distribution in the territory, since these activities need to be adapted to the constraints imposed by the soil and the natural milieu.

•	Agricultural activity

Agriculture is now one of the main sources of soil degradation, and requires major changes. It should stop altering and even degrading the other ecological functions of soil (transformation and regulation), as intensive agriculture (due to an excess of tilling, fertilising, phytosanitary treatments and wastewater from animal husbandry) and mining agriculture (due to the lack or the insufficient management of soil fertility) do. This means that new kinds of agriculture need to be set up, which suit not only environmental conditions and natural fertility renewal rates, but also the conditions and needs of human societies.

But, taking into account the current control of the market on the production styles and on the commerce of agricultural produce, some mechanisms of assistance are required:

1-	States should commit themselves not to turn food supply into a form of blackmail vis-à-vis other states or vis-à-vis specific social groups whatsoever.

2-	States should commit themselves to ensuring that the food products they sell on the international market are obtained under the same conditions as those marketed in the country from which they came; this commitment is essential in order to avoid the development two parallel agricultures: export-oriented and  local consumption-oriented.

3-	Under no circumstances (notably when development assistance is invoked) should states be allowed to move industrial polluting agricultural activities to developing countries. No exceptions to this rule should be accorded under any pretext, above that of development aid.

4-	The international trade of food produce should be subject to a principle of human solidarity, rather than to market law; compensation systems should be utilised accordingly.

5-	Changes in citizens’ consumption patterns should be encouraged, in order to limit waste and encourage the reorganisation of agriculture; the consumer can and should, by virtue of his choices, direct the way soils and natural resources are used, towards sustainable utilisation forms. Biological agriculture, organic agriculture, the privileged consumption of local produce, imposed by the consumer and supported by the action of several non-governmental organisations, are now a reality in a number of countries.

•	Industrial activity

The multitude of polluted sites today and the difficulty of restoring them should lead to increased caution when setting up the industrial activities of the future. At least three principles should be compulsory:
1-	Avoid locating industries on lands whose soils are especially sensitive to ecological functions.
2-	Include in the design of any industrial activity the provision for rapid and easy soil rehabilitation in the case of permanent shutdown activities.
3-	Submit industrial activity to the principles of industrial ecology, in order to minimise inputs (energy, water, raw material) and discharge at the end a limited amount of waste into the soils and the environment.

•	Architecture, urban development and land-use planning

All these activities should be fully re-thought so as:
1-	To consume as little surface area of soil as possible. A paved soil loses most of its other functions as a whole; efforts need to be made in particular to replace concrete pavement in some places (public places, parking lots, roads, airports, etc.) by other materials that offer the same comfort but that enable rainwater, air and biological activity to flow through.
2-	To mitigate the physical and cultural rifts between the city and the countryside, between the urban and the rural; contemporary societies do not live anymore with the soil but on it, as it was observed at the Prague Conference (August 2000): This is dangerous.
3- 	Tourism, craftwork, leisure and services should be reviewed and redistributed in territories according to their impact on the soils and in order to maintain the vitality of the countryside.

This means that tomorrow’s habitat and tomorrow’s cities, as well as land-use planning, need to be reinvented.

III
Human solidarity to save a universal heritage
Soil is a natural and cultural heritage of humanity. It is a spatial and temporal link between living beings. It is a factor of interdependence.
1-	Soils influence and have been influenced by the development of human societies since the post-Palaeolithic era. In particular many human societies have improved or even created soils and assured the continuation of human life under harsh conditions in regions with poor soil (the podzols of northern Europe), mountainous regions (Mediterranean basin), and arid climates ( Saharan oases, the Dogon highlands, etc). In this fashion soils are truly ‘the combined work of humankind and nature’, and soils therefore can be classed as a ‘Cultural Heritage’ according to Article 1 of the Convention for the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage (UNESCO 1972). To this can be added the cultural aspect of soils, they preserve humankind's history. They are a temporal link between humans.
2-	Soils are a factor of human interdependence. They are a spatial link between living beings, soil degradation, which is part of the consequences of humankind's influence on the climate and the flows of gases and water  on earth, show this to be a daily reality. In fact; 
a) there is no longer any “natural soil”, not even in the Amazon forest, 
b) the consequences of soil degradation are global; they concern humankind as a whole, even if the causes of degradation are very local. The emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and ammonia from the soil spread into the atmosphere; the pollution of continental ‑ surface and underground ‑ water and that of sea water are linked to soil pollution.
c) soil erosion is a factor for the downstream transfer (sometimes across national boundaries) of fertility (organic matter, clay, silt), pollutants (nitrates, pesticides, heavy metals), biodiversity (grains, spores); we should remember that a number of the earliest human civilisations were born along rivers (Tigris, Nile, Indus, Amazon, etc.), there where agriculture was practised on soil deposited from upstream erosion. 
d) soils, by stocking organic matter,  offer the possibility of sequestrating atmospheric carbon dioxide and of thus mitigating the greenhouse effect and climate change.
Thus, soils are a true heritage that humankind is obliged to protect. Human solidarity can take place in particular in two ways:
•	by mobilising knowledge useful for soil conservation, and making it available to all;
•	by mobilising financial resources to ensure the effectiveness of soil protection and rehabilitation measures.

A.	Mobilisation of knowledge concerning the conservation and improvement of soils:
9. Constituting Soil Databases and their networking.
The repeated failures of high-tech endeavours in soil protection operations have led during the last decades to research efforts that seek to gain insight into popular knowledge and incorporate it into natural resource ‑ and especially soil ‑ conservation practices. The first scientific findings have shown the need to for research into and to preserve what remains of coherent popular knowledge as soon as possible, so as to prevent a permanent loss for humankind.
Our suggestions are as follows:
1.	Soil Databases ‑ SoilDbs ‑ should be created within every country or region, covering both scientific knowledge and coherent popular knowledge on soil conservation.
2.	The SoilDbs should bring together all knowledge that may be applied for the protection of soil and its functions; for the restoration of degraded soils; for the management of soils and their fertility; for the sustainable use of soils; etc.
3.	The national or regional SoilDbs should constitute continental networks, and the latter should constitute a global network.
4.	These databases should be drawn on when solutions are sought to local, national, continental or global problems.
5.	Any utilisation of knowledge from these databases should commit the user not only to quote the reference (even if the technology was modified, as long as the principle remains the same), but also to provide at least a symbolic financial contribution, since these contributions would enable maintaining and enriching the SoilDbs, as well as their networking.
6.	Periodical publications (on both paper and electronic supports) should be issued and they would provide additional resources for the operation of SoilDb networks.
7.	The SoilDbs should be independent from the current organisations in charge of managing pedological information, although the latter could play a complementary role.
8.	The activities of SoilDb networks should be sponsored by international agencies, large NGOs and foundations.

B.	Mobilisation of human solidarity funds for soil conservation, restoration, improvement, and building:
Conserving soils in order to prevent their degradation, restoring degraded soils, and improving and building soils require mobilising large amounts of financial resources at the national and global levels.
These funds can be mobilised in two ways:
a-	The first calls for human solidarity: Every citizen can accept the principle of paying a symbolic tax on every product that comes, either directly or indirectly, from the soil, and especially on food.
b-	The second involves establishing taxes based on principles such as “the polluter pays” or “the destroyer pays” on:
•	every product stemming from or aimed at activities that may provoke the degradation of soils or their functions;
•	every activity that leads to the degradation of soils or their functions;
•	every activity that leads to definitive soil losses.
10. Setting up National Soil Funds: NSF.
Every state should create the institutional conditions for setting up its National Soil Fund, geared towards the preservation, improvement and development of its own soils. It should also create the institutional conditions and the mechanisms that enable collecting taxes and allocating them to the NSF, as well as ensuring good management.
The NSFs will support states and local NGOs to implement policies and activities (including educational activities) aimed at the protection, the improvement and the development of soils, giving priority to the knowledge included in the local SoilDbs.
11. Setting up a World Soil Fund: WSF.
The international community needs to set up the institutional conditions for creating, feeding and managing a WSF. This fund could well be created under an international convention on soils.
Unlike the NSF, the WSF will be supported by taxes on international trade and on multinational companies.
The WSF should seek to support soil conservation activities at the global level, and, last but not least, the restoration of degraded soils ‑ a source of serious concern nowadays. In particular, it should be aimed at:
1.	Supporting the action of states and international and local NGOs in cross-boundary soil restoration activities, by giving priority to the knowledge contained in the local SoilDbs.
2.	Supporting the action of states and international and local NGOs in all the activities (including educational activities) aimed at soil conservation, by giving priority to the knowledge contained in the local SoilDbs.
3.	Supporting and reinforcing the operation of SoilDb networks.
4.	Supporting the actions of the NSFs.
5.	Supporting the objectives of the international soil legislation.

APPENDICES

Sheet 1: The Functions Fulfilled by Soils
Sheet 2: The Klingenthal III meeting
Sheet 3: Tell me the Soil
Sheet 4: Soils, the Earth’s Skin
Sheet 5: The Tutzing Initiative for a Soil Convention (TISC)
Sheet 6: Support of the ISSS to the Tutzing Initiative
Sheet 7 and 8: The International Panel on Soils
Sheet 9: An Intergovernmental Panels on Soils
Sheet 10: The IUCN Resolution at Amman, Jordan 2000

Sheet 1

The functions fulfilled by soils

According to current knowledge, soils are:

-	Biomass production systems; both the starting and the ending points for biogeochemical cycles. This production includes food for the living world, renewable energy and the materials that the living world, and notably humankind, uses in its constructions and its industrial activities.
-	Substance transformation systems. Their properties enable them to carry out physical (physical reactors), chemical (chemical reactors) and biological (bio-reactors) transformations on the flows of solid, liquid and gaseous materials that lie in it or flow through it. This function turns the soils into an excellent treatment system for the wastes of human activities. The quality of the food chain, the water and the air depend on it.
-	Regulation systems. This function is particularly important nowadays for water and carbon. Soils have properties that enable them to play a leading role in feeding underground aquifers and in regulating the hydrological regimes of rivers. Moreover, they store atmospheric carbon dioxide ‑ the main greenhouse-effect gas ‑ in the form of organic matter. The sequestration of atmospheric CO2 by soils is considered as one of the possible solutions to climate change.
-	A gene reserve. Soil is a step for many biological cycles. Biological diversity in the soils is much higher than the one on them. A number of living organisms remain undiscovered in the soils.
-	A memory. They bear witness of past human activities. Since they keep track of their own history and of the ways they have been used by human societies, they are a page in the history of nature and of human evolution.
-	Physical supports for all human activities (agriculture, industry, transport, habitat, craft-activities, leisure, etc.). They are a raw material for a number of human activities (e.g. industry, urban development, architecture, craft-making). They contain minerals that are sought by humankind.

Sheet 2 

The meeting of Klingenthal III 

At the initiative of the Soil Campaign of the Alliance for a responsible, plural and united world and Pax Christi France, persons from different cultures and spiritualities, representatives of the civil society, administrators, scientists, met in a symposium from the 6th to the 10th of May 1998, in the Castle of Klingenthal, Alsace, France - to exchange ideas on the issue of "Soils, Cultures and Spiritualities”. 
The presentations and the debate were about many subjects: existing knowledge accumulated by the soil sciences; perceptions, representations and lessons learned about soils in the different religions, spiritualities, native cultures (Bahaïsm, Buddhism, Christianism, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Shistoism, Taoism, Aborigines of Canada, Indians of Amazonia, Negro Africans, Quecha of the Andes, Shamans of Siberia) and the Universalists. After these talks, concrete experiences were exchanged on the way soil is managed in mono, multi-cultural and religious societies; the way soils issue is taken into account in teaching and communication campaigns; as well as how it is integrated into the preoccupations of administrators, civil servants and local authorities, and non governmental organizations.The symposium was fruitful. It ended up with the " Declaration of Klingenthal III on Soils" of which we have extracted the following ...... 
We have observed…
-	scientific knowledge now allows us to identify clearly the importance of soils for the preservation of life on earth and the maintenance of global equilibria; to understand better the role of soils in individual lives, human societies, and diverse human activities; and to define clearly the threats to this natural resource.
-	 in the different cultures and religions represented at this symposium, references to the soil exist, and to the extent that these attitudes toward the soil converge, they encourage respect for this resource.  But in reality, unfortunately, this is not always reflected in the preservation of the soil. 
-	a lack of awareness of the importance of soil is widespread in public opinion and among those who use or manage the soil directly. 
We consider that :
-	for human societies, the soil is the source of life, of well-being and fulfilment, and that whatever our scientific and technical progress, the soil will remain an essential foundation for all human progress.
-	In the diversity of our cultures and spiritualities, we must preserve the soil and all its functions for future generations.  To this end, we must first change our daily behaviour towards the soil.  

We call on :

1-  educational, information, and communication systems to become conscious, and to make others conscious, of the existence of the soil with its multiple functions and its importance for the life of our planet.

2- all peoples to value their culture and popular traditions concerning the earth and the soil, because they encourage an attitude of respect for this resource which we only tend to see as a source of profit.

3-  humans and human society to reexamine the illusion of liberty and systematic progress produced by science and technology, and to rediscover ways of using the soil that respect its diversity and the natural rhythms that renew its fertility, while guaranteeing a healthy food chain and excellent water quality.

4- decision-makers at all levels:  individuals, businesses, nations, and international organizations to make judicious and responsible choices when deciding on land uses and developments.  Conflicting demands for the best soils must be resolved in favour of preserving the soil resource and its functions.

5-  individuals and societies to adopt patterns of consumption that discourage the pillage of natural resources and that produce little waste destined for soils and the environment.  Non-governmental organizations and associations for international solidarity have particularly important responsibilities here.

6-  individuals and societies to be unified, to recognize the inalienable right of peoples to feed themselves, and to replace confrontation with cooperation and dialogue, which alone can find ways to counter the deterioration of soils and their functions.

7-  the scientific community to engage more in research on the sustainable uses of soils by human societies in the diversity of their cultures and spiritualities.  Nations and institutions must support these research efforts and the application of the results.

8-  individuals and societies to create a dialogue among diverse forms of popular knowledge about soil use and between scientific and popular viewpoints, and to create conditions for the revival and reevaluation of coherent and useful forms of popular knowledge of the soil for the benefit of future generations and all humanity.

Sheet 3
“Tell me a story on soil”

A project of the Soil Campaign
within
the Intercultural Library of FPH

The absence of soil, as subject matter, in the basic teaching programs (3-10/11 years) as well as in the medium and secondary teaching (12-18/19 years) has been highlighted, at the occasion of several international meetings, by Soil Scientists and by representatives of civil society working for a sustainable use of soil resource. 
This lack in general teaching, both public and private, is a serious handicap to popular awareness on soils issues. It is reinforced by the absence in the educational and para-educational networks (bookstores, libraries, medias, …) of specific educational materials on soils while there are some on rocks, minerals, water, plants, animals, mushrooms etc. 
The experience suggests that a minimum knowledge on soil is necessary  for all citizens of the Earth in view of the rehabilitation of soils in people’s culture. This rehabilitation appears, today, as a prerequisite for the success of all policies of soil preservation, including through legal means. The community of Soil Scientists must contribute to this effort. 
From the outset, the Soil Campaign emphasised, as part of its concerns, the necessity of teaching about soil as a prerequisite. It launches, in the framework of the “Intercultural Series for the Future” of the Foundation Charles Léopold Mayer, a call to the community of Soil Scientists for the production of educational references on soils intended for the general teaching. 

In particular, the community of Soil Scientists was summoned by the IUSS bulletin to contribute to constitute a first series of educational references for children. They were asked to prepare, in the framework of their own cultures, a two-page (6,000-character) soil lesson for 10 to 12 year old children.
The contributions will be presented and validated when the IUSS Commission on Soil Education and Public Awareness meets on the occasion of the 17th Soil Science World Congress (Bangkok, 2002).
The validated lessons will then be illustrated by a specialist and published under the title “Tell me a story on soil” - Collection of Educational References on Soil, addressed to 10 to 12 year old children. The patronage of UNESCO for this work will be sought, since its official acknowledgement by this institution as a pedagogical tool useful for soil education would facilitate its translation into other languages and its world-wide distribution.

Sheet 4

Project

SOILS – THE EARTH’S SKIN

SOS-2002 (“let’s save our soils”)

for a sustainable utilisation of soils

Since 1999, the Soil Campaign is participating with Peter Heller, a well-known German filmmaker, in setting up and launching this project. It foresees:

•	Preparing a multimedia kit called “Soils ‑ the Earth’s Skin” in different mass media in a Franco-German campaign during the year 2002. In this context, there will be a whole 240-minute evening program on the French ARTE channel (in co-operation with the German ARD channel) on the subject “It’s dirty - the Soils of the World”, as well as a series of radio programs (in co-operation with the “Francfurter Hörfunkagentur IAD” / International Audio Services).

•	The publication of articles in the journals of the different German and French journalists’ associations; the production of an educational film for German and French general education schools; several expositions; and a DVD-ROM (German/French). In-depth and extended versions of these materials will then be produced for secondary schools and for adult education.

The team behind this project includes today:  Prof. Dr. Mireille Dosso (CNEARC Montpellier; SC); Prof. Dr. Alain Ruellan (CNEARC Montpellier; SC); Prof. Dr. Rabah Lahmar (Charles Léopold Mayer Foundation, Paris; SC); Dr. Martin Held (Protestant Academy Tutzing), Prof. Dr. Armin Reller (Augsburg University); Peter Heller, filmmaker and producer of award-winning films such as “Jungleburger” and “Love of the Empire”,  (Filmkraft, Munich.); Heiko Feld, documentary film maker  (Feldfilm, Munich); Sylvie Banuls, filmmaker (Lopevi Images, Paris).

Fiche 5

Tutzing Initiative for a Soil Convention (TISC)
By Martin Held

Dr. Martin Held, Protestant Academy Tutzing, Co-Author of the proposal for a Soil Convention
held@ev-akademie-tutzing.de ; www.soil-convention.org

There had been recommendations for a binding instrument on soils as an international framework for actions at all levels from various experts and scientific bodies (German Advisory Council on Global Change 1995; Hurni et al. 1996). According to these recommendations the Tutzing Initiative for a Soil Convention (TISC) has launched a proposal for a  “Convention on Sustainable Use of Soils” (Soil Convention) in 1997. The draft was written with the support of experts and representatives from NGOs and from all relevant disciplines (Tutzing Project “Time Ecology” 19982).
This initiative underlines the importance of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) as a first step for the sustainable use of soils and land management. This proposal is now widely debated. Many persons as well as organizations are actively supporting and working on it like the International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS), the International Soil Conservation Organisation (ISCO), the Committee on Environmental Law of IUCN and many others. Foundations and NGOs from all over the world are actively supporting it like “The Soil Campaign” of Charles Léopold Mayer Foundation, Paris, Legambiente (Italy), Friends of the Earth Germany and many others. This Tutzing Initiative has stimulated activities on all levels, from global to local, to be active and raise soil awareness and stimulate measures on the sustainable use of soils and land management. For example, the parliament of Bolzano-South-Tyrol has decided to support this proposal and take up the goals in the region (June 1999, with all votes). The proposal also stimulated the idea of a Soil Alliance for Local Authorities complementing the Climate Alliance which was discussed and welcomed at the International Annual Conference of the Climate Alliance, Bolzano, Thursday 18 May 2000.
One of the results of these debates and activities was to establish an Intergovernmental / International Panel on Soils (IPS). In close contact with organizations like the IUSS Hartmut Grassl (former director of the World Climate Research Programme based at WMO, Geneva) and Beno Pilardeaux (member of the Committee on Science and Technology of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, Bremerhaven) have written short papers to introduce this idea to all interested decision makers and to all other interested persons and organizations.

References
German Advisory Council on Global Change (1995): World in Transition: The Threat to Soils. Annual Report 1994. Bonn: Economica.
Hurni, Hans et al. (1996): Precious Earth. From Soil and Water Conservation to Sustainable Land Management. Berne: International Soil Conservation Organisation.
Tutzinger Projekt “Time Ecology” (19982): Preserving Soils for Life. Proposal for a “Convention on Sustainable Use of Soils” (Soil Convention). Schriftenreihe zur politischen Ökologie. Munich: oekom publishers (French-English-Spanish-German). [other publications available edited at Paris, Mexico, Lublin, Beyrouth; text is available in Arabic, English, French, German, Italian, Polish and Spanish.]

Sheet 6
Support of ISSS to the Tutzing Initiative for a Soil Convention.
Preface to the publication:
“Conserving soils, the source of life. Proposal for a Convention on sustainable soil utilisation”

In August 1998, on the occasion of the 16th World Soil Science Congress, the proposal for an International Soil Convention was introduced for the first time to the World scientific community. This proposal is now known as the “Tutzing Initiative for a Soil Convention”. The preface for this document, published jointly by Ökom-Verlag (Munich) and by Éditions Charles Léopold Mayer (Paris) is reproduced below:

After considerable efforts on a world-wide level to protect air, water and biota (see UN Agenda 21, Convention on Biological Diversity, UN Framework Convention on Climate Change etc.) it has now become necessary to include the soil within the scope of environmental protection. Soil is a more complex medium than air and water. It may indeed be the most complex system known to science. Composed of inorganic and organic compounds, and solid, liquid and gaseous forms, it contains large numbers of living organisms and is the medium which supports life in its broadest sense. Unlike air, water, and biota, which are mobile systems, soil is site-specific, and although more stable than the other three systems, it shows great variability in space and time.

In general, soils are not known to humans, because they are hidden under their feet and they cannot use them in the way they use air, water or biota. But soils have at least six main functions for human life such as:

•	The production of biomass by agriculture and forestry 
•	Filtering, buffering and transformation activity, between the atmosphere, the ground water, and the plant cover, protecting the environment and especially humans through the protection of the food chain and the drinking water reserves. 
•	Soils are biological habitats and gene reserves, much larger in quantity and in quality than all the above ground biomass.
•	Soils serve as a spatial base for technical, industrial and socio-economic structures and their development, e.g. for the construction of industrial premises, houses, transport systems, sports and recreation areas, dumping of refuse, and others.
•	Soils are used as a source of raw materials, e.g. clay, sand and gravel for construction, and also as a reserve of water and energy.
•	Finally, soils are a geogenic and cultural heritage, forming an essential part of the landscape in which we live and concealing paleontological and archaeological treasures of high value for the understanding of the history of earth and mankind

The problems of soil degradation and soil destruction are caused by the competition existing between these different forms of land use. Therefore, new perceptions and concepts for sustainable land use should be developed, which are conditioned in the bounds of nature. In this context, sustainable land use and protection of soil can be defined as the spatial (local or regional) and temporal harmonisation of all main uses of soil and land, minimizing irreversible ones, which is not a scientific but rather a political issue.

 Exactly in this sense, a new convention is urgently needed, and it is most interesting to recognize that in the last few years NGOs of different origins and with very diverse views and perspectives have started to care for soils, well knowing that the protection of soil through international legal instruments is a must if humankind should survive, especially in view of the world-wide, rapid degradation of soil and the still growing world population.

 The International Society of Soil Science (ISSS) is supporting this initiative for a Convention on Sustainable Use of Soils (Soil Convention). We do hope that it will find broad support, promoting new insights into the problem of soil degradation, and stimulating the public, politicians and decision makers to bring it to an agenda.

Prof. Alain RUELLAN	Prof. Winfried E.H. BLUM
President of ISSS	Secretary General of ISSS

Note: The International Soil Science Society (ISSS) became in 1998 the International Union of Soil Science (IUSS)

Sheet 7
Tutzing Initiative for a Soil Convention (TISC)
By Martin Held

Dr. Martin Held, Protestant Academy Tutzing, Co-Author of the proposal for a Soil Convention
held@ev-akademie-tutzing.de ; www.soil-convention.org

There had been recommendations for a binding instrument on soils as an international framework for actions at all levels from various experts and scientific bodies (German Advisory Council on Global Change 1995; Hurni et al. 1996). According to these recommendations the Tutzing Initiative for a Soil Convention (TISC) has launched a proposal for a  “Convention on Sustainable Use of Soils” (Soil Convention) in 1997. The draft was written with the support of experts and representatives from NGOs and from all relevant disciplines (Tutzing Project “Time Ecology” 1998).
This initiative underlines the importance of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) as a first step for the sustainable use of soils and land management. This proposal is now widely debated. Many persons as well as organizations are actively supporting and working on it, such as the International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS), the International Soil Conservation Organisation (ISCO), the Committee on Environmental Law of IUCN and many others. Foundations and NGOs from all over the world are actively supporting it, such as “The Soil Campaign” of Charles Léopold Mayer Foundation, Paris, Legambiente (Italy), Friends of the Earth Germany and many others. This Tutzing Initiative has stimulated activities on all levels, from global to local, to be active and raise soil awareness and stimulate measures on the sustainable use of soils and land management. For example, the parliament of Bolzano-South-Tyrol has decided to support this proposal and take up its goals in the region (June 1999, with all votes). The proposal also stimulated the idea of a Soil Alliance for Local Authorities complementing the Climate Alliance which was discussed and welcomed at the International Annual Conference of the Climate Alliance, Bolzano, Thursday 18 May 2000.
One of the results of these debates and activities was to establish an Intergovernmental / International Panel on Soils (IPS). In close contact with organizations such as the IUSS Hartmut Grassl (former director of the World Climate Research Programme based at WMO, Geneva) and Beno Pilardeaux (member of the Committee on Science and Technology of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, Bremerhaven) have written short papers to introduce this idea to all interested decision makers and to all other interested persons and organizations.
References:
German Advisory Council on Global Change (1995): World in Transition: The Threat to Soils. Annual Report 1994. Bonn: Economica.
Hurni, Hans, et al. (1996): Precious Earth. From Soil and Water Conservation to Sustainable Land Management. Berne: International Soil Conservation Organisation.
Tutzinger Projekt “Time Ecology” (1998): Preserving Soils for Life. Proposal for a “Convention on Sustainable Use of Soils” (Soil Convention). Schriftenreihe zur politischen Ökologie. Munich: oekom publishers (French-English-Spanish-German). [other publications available edited in Paris, Mexico, Lublin, Beyrouth; the text is available in Arabic, English, French, German, Italian, Polish and Spanish.]

Sheet 8
International Panel on Soils (IPS)
By Benno Pilardeaux

Dr. Benno Pilardeaux, Secretariat of the German Advisory Council on Global Change  (WBGU), Bremerhaven (all views expressed are those of the author) 
   www.wbgu.de - bpilardeaux@wbgu.de

There is a lack of scientific advice concerning the international soil protection policy for several reasons:

Improvement of implementation control of the UNCCD through the development of guardrails.
In order to improve control of the implementation of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) there should be quantified reduction or protection targets. A prerequisite for this is to define the non-tolerable developments of soil degradation, termed guardrails. The purpose of limiting tolerable developments of soil degradation by means of guardrails is to prevent the environmental system from moving dangerously close to possibly unstable states that could lead to dramatic hazards, e. g., famines. As soon as the specific guardrails have been defined a scientific analysis can identify the soil protection strategies required. This so-called tolerable windows approach developed by the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU 1997) identifies, on the basis of normative stipulations of non-tolerable developments, a range of soil protection strategies compatible with these restrictions.

Global monitoring of soil degradation
Although the GLASOD-data and the FAO world soil map provided a first scientific basis to assess soil degradation, there has not been a continuation or a refinement of this work. Moreover, the GLASOD-data are based on expert estimates. Quantified data showing the trends in global soil degradation will be provided within the next 10-15 years by the Global and National Soil and Terrain Digital Database Program, called SOTER (Oldemann 1999). SOTER is a joint program by ISRIC, FAO and UNEP. Such a set of quantitative data are a basis necessary for the development of global strategies. However, on the long-term basis there must be a body that monitors the work of SOTER. 

Soils and biological sources and sinks for greenhouse gases
Concerning the ongoing negotiation processes of the sister conventions of the UNCCD there is a need for co-ordination. There is still a lack of knowledge about the possible impact of the Clean Development Mechanism on the UNCCD and the role played by soils in the accounting of biological sources sinks under the Kyoto protocol. 

Basic set of global indicators for the implementation of the UNCCD
There is a need for a basic set of indicators (implementation and impact indicators) in order to compare and assess the progress achieved by the implementation of the UNCCD through National Actions Programmes.

Conclusion: International Panel on Soils is needed
Taking the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as an example and learning from the experiences gained, there should also be a scientific body for soils to provide independent scientific advice to the UNCCD. An International Panel on Soils (IPS) could deal with the scientific questions mentioned above in order to support the development of global strategies for soil protection. The task of the UNCCD´s Committee on Science and Technology (CST) would be to process or prepare the scientific findings for the Conference of the Parties. This would be in line with the tasks of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) of the Framework Convention on Climate Change that prepares the scientific findings of the IPCC-reports for the Conference of the Parties. 

References
German Advisory Council on Global Change, (Wissenschaftlicher Beirat Globale Umweltveränderungen, WBGU) (1997): Targets for Climate Protection 1997, Bremerhaven.
Oldeman, Roel (1999): Bodenmonitoring – Index eines nachhaltigen Umgangs mit Böden, in: Haber, Wolfgang, Held, Martin und Schneider, Manuel (Hrsg.): Nachhaltiger Umgang mit Böden – Initiative für eine internationale Bodenkonvention, S. 67-80, Süddeutsche Zeitung, München. 

Sheet 9 

Why do we need an Intergovernmental Panel on Soils (IPS)?
By Hartmut Grassl

Prof. Dr. Hartmut Grassl, Director Max-Planck-Institute for Meteorology, Hamburg, Germany.    grassl@dkrz.de
Until 1999 he was Director of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP),  based at WMO, Geneva, Switzerland.

Degradation of soils is a problem for all countries and is threatening food security in many countries already, maybe even more than anthropogenic climate change might do in coming decades. However, no globally co-ordinated assessment of the knowledge base on soil degradation, its trends and potential solutions for a trend reversal exists. Without such an assessment, progress in improving food security in most developing countries will be slow. One of the main reasons for the absence of co-ordinated action is the argument that local mismanagement causes soil degradation so it should be corrected by acting locally as well. This misjudgement neglects that - despite the immobility of soils - degradation is to a great extent due to transport across borders, either by shipping of goods or by atmospheric circulation, exporting pollution and soil and plant nutrients (e.g. mining nutrients by shipping soy beans used in animal husbandry from South America to Europe). If soil degradation is affecting agricultural yield, i.e., if stronger fertilizer applications and changed agricultural practices can no longer offset reduced soil fertility, increased poverty and finally migration will be the consequence causing conflict inside countries or between them and leading to xenophobic reactions in industrialised countries.
The absence of most up-to-date policy-relevant information now delays action within the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). The input for its Committee on Science and Technology is far from that for the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). SBSTA gets regular input from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), that has received joint sponsorship from the the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), a specialised UN agency, and the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) since 1988. IPCC has been able to attract the leading scientists of the global climate and climate impact research community. It is no exaggeration to state that IPCC assessments were fundamental for global climate change policy. The first full assessment (1990) stimulated UNFCCC, the second (1995) laid the foundation for the Kyoto Protocol and the forthcoming third (late 2000) might push Kyoto-Protocol ratification.
Obvious conclusions for environmental policy are:

•	The global community has to accept soil degradation as a global problem that needs to be reduced by globally co-ordinated action.
•	The existing UNCCD is not sufficient to reduce soil degradation world wide, i.e., we need a UN soil convention dealing with all soil degradation types, not just desertification, which is obviously the most important one.
•	The assessment of the knowledge base on environmental problems has to be co-ordinated globally as well, has to be accepted by governments, thus must be intergovernmental, and it is the prerequisite of political action within UN conventions.

In other words: We urgently need an Intergovernmental Panel on Soils (IPS), established by the relevant UN bodies and supported by international non-governmental scientific organizations. The parents of IPS would therefore be the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) and the International Council for Science (ICSU) with its International Union of Soil Science (IUSS). The way the IPCC is structured with its 3 working groups on science, impacts and policy responses could act as a useful model for the design of an IPS.
IPS would facilitate the implementation of UNCCD. IPS could also promote the enlargement of UNCCD into a global convention to protect soils in due time. It would stimulate research on sustainable use of soils and land management. It would specifically strengthen the monitoring of soil properties and impacts of measures. Finally, it will lead the way to food security.

Fiche 10

Proposal for an Intergovernmental Panel on Land and Soil (IPLS)
Report from the side event at the 4th Conference of the Parties to the Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)

Organised by: German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU, www.wbgu.de) and Protestant Academy Tutzing (www.ev-akademie-tutzing.de)

Speakers: Prof. Dr. Hartmut Grassl, former director of the World Climate Research Programme, member of the WBGU and director at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Hamburg. Prof. Dr. Winfried Blum, General Secretary of the International Union of Soil Sciences, Vienna and Dr. Luca Montanarella, Head of the European Soil Bureau, Ispra.

Participants: 55 participants attended the meeting, among them many members of the Committee on Science and Technology (CST) of the UNCCD. 

Results

Parent bodies could be: International Council for Science (ICSU), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations (FAO).

Structure: Experiences with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) could guide the process, e.g. the system of having chairs and co-chair from industrialised and developing countries in each working group and the system of peer reviews.

Funding: Like IPCC. A small secretariat funded by the parent bodies would be sufficient. Operational costs for technical support units and travel costs of experts would have to be funded by volunteer donations. 

Tasks
Providing independent and multidisciplinary scientific input to the CST/COP:
•	Integration and use of existing scientific knowledge at the international level
•	Assessment of scientific findings
•	Formulation of recommendations for policymakers and stimulation of research programmes

Dr. Martin Held, Tutzing Academy
Dr. Benno Pilardeaux, WBGU Secretariat			              Bonn, Germany, 14 December 2000

Sheet 10

RESOLUTION ON THE LEGAL ASPECTS 
OF THE SUSTAINABLE USE OF SOILS 
IUCN WORLD CONSERVATION CONGRESS AMMAN, JORDAN

RECALLING that one of the objectives of IUCN since its founding in 1948 was the establishment of laws and treaties for the protection of nature, and
RECOGNISING the important contributions to establishment of the field of environmental law made by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources since 1965, 
AWARE that environmental law has become a field of law whose scope is exceptionally broad, ranging from the legal systems of local authorities and the customary law of traditional societies and indigenous peoples, through to the laws of States and the international law among States, and 
NOTING the significant cooperation and support that exists among the soil science community for the improvement of environmental law and policy for the sustainable use of soils, particularly in regard to the ecological functions of soil for the conservation of biodiversity and the maintenance of human life, including: the production of biomass; the filtering, buffering and transformation activity between the atmosphere, ground water and plant cover; soils as a biological habitat and gene reserve; soils as a spatial base for technical, industrial and socio-economic structures and their development; and soils as a source of raw materials, 
CONVINCED that the future ecological benefits of the world’s soils will depend on the availability of the existence of adequate global, regional and national legal strategies to enable individual nations to make sound land use and land management decisions, and on building the capacity to communicate these strategies, 
CONCERNED that there is a need to study further and make recommendations concerning the synergy among the several international environmental instruments of relevance to soils and the patterns of their implementation through national legislation, 
ACKNOWLEDGING that whilst there is a range of international instruments addressing aspects of soil conservation, there is at present no specific global environmental law instrument for the sustainable use of soils 

The World Conservation Congress, at its second session, in Amman, Jordan, 4-10 October 2000,

WELCOMES the initiative of the Environmental Law Programme to form the Working Group on the Legal Aspects of the Sustainable Use of Soils to prepare guidelines and explanatory material relating to principles and elements of national legislation and policy to assist States to manage their specific soil degradation and land degradation problems, and to investigate the need for and feasibility of further developing international environmental law in this field, in particular through an international instrument for the sustainable use of soils, 

INVITES IUCN members to provide all possible support to the Environmental Law Programme in developing guidelines on the essential elements to include in environmental legislation and policy for the sustainable use of soils, and its investigation of a global instrument for the sustainable sue of soils, and

REQUESTS the Environmental Law Programme, in its development of legal guidelines, 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.

Signatures of the resolution sponsors:

1.	Center for Environmental Legal Studies, Pace University, New York, USA;  
2.	Sociedad Peruana de Derecho Ambiental (SPDA), Peru ;
3.	Asia Pacific Centre for Environmental Law, National University of Singapore, Singapore; 
4.	Environmental Law Institute, Washington, USA;
5.	Lawyers for a Green Planet (Instituto “O direito por um Planeta Verde”), Brazil ; 
6.	Nature Conservation Council of New South Wales, Australia.