Dear colleagues/contributors
The e-consultation is now closed, and we would like to thank you all for your participation in the on-line consultation for developing the Voluntary Guidelines for Sustainable Soil Management (VGSSM). During the course of the discussion, it has been fantastic to read the comments and thoughts of the various range of soil users, from farmers organizations to NGOs, universities, soil societies, research institutes, private and public sector, and individuals too.
The quantity and especially the quality of the thoughtful comments received from more than 30 countries are fundamental and will now enable the Intergovernmental Technical Panel on Soils (ITPS), the main advisory body to the Global Soil Partnership, to prepare the first draft of the VGSSM (end of March 2016). This draft will then be submitted to an Open-Ended Working Group for its finalization and submission to the Fifth Global Soil Partnership Plenary Assembly (23-25th May 2016). If endorsed by the Plenary Assembly, the draft VGSSM will be submitted to the Committee on Agriculture (COAG) for its review, and if endorsed to the FAO Council.
The full proceeding will be posted shortly on this website, while you are invited to follow the next steps of the VGSSM development process on the Global Soil Partnership webpages. You may also contact the GSP Secretariat for any further questions.
So, many thanks to all of you for your insights and the passion you bring to achieve sustainable soil management worldwide !
Key Messages from E-Consultation
The guidelines should not be limited to agriculture alone: Many submissions stressed the need to expand the guidelines to include non-agricultural land uses and pointed out the disparity between the World Soil Charter and the Guidelines in this regard.
Need to develop indicators for SSM and monitor adoption: Many submissions emphasised the need to develop a suite of indicators that can be applied to assess SSM; specific measures such as Visual Soil Evaluation, Soil Quality Assessment, and erosion assessment were suggested.
Lack of clarity about stakeholders and governance: There were a number of comments about the need to clarify the stakeholders this document is targeted at. This is also linked to concerns about governance – policy instruments to increase adoption of SSM have to be targeted at the relevant stakeholder.
Expand SSM approaches beyond Conservation Agriculture: There were a wide range of SSM measures beyond Conservation Agriculture (CA) suggested by commentators. There were also concerns that the zero-order draft had been too negative about CA and that it had been too positive about CA.
Concerns about the voluntary nature of the Guidelines: Several commentators expressed the hope that the guidelines could be made more binding rather than voluntary.
There were a large number of suggestions for concepts that should be added or highlighted in the VGSSM. Some of those that were endorsed by multiple commentators were:
Trade-offs: Societies need to make choices about the ecological services offered by soils, and these should be highlighted in the document; this links the definition of SSM more with the classical definition of sustainability.
Soil resistance and resilience: These related concepts are mentioned in the document but should be promoted as the basis for SSM assessment.
Land Capability and Land Use Incapability Classification: It was noted that degradation occurs when land use is not linked to land capability. This is also linked to the governance question raised by others – who decides on the use of the soil?
Soils and climate regulation: Several commentators felt that the guidelines were weak on the link between SSM and climate regulation.
Biodiversity and SSM: The section on protection of biodiversity was felt to be particularly weak, although the difficulty of assessment was also acknowledged.
Role of soil structure and SSM: Several commentators felt that the role of soil structure needed to be highlighted.
An integrated soil-sediment-water system approach should be used: The very strong link between SSM and water resources was emphasised by many commentators.
Dan Pennock, Intergovernmental Technical Panel on Soils
Ronald Vargas, Global Soil Partnership Secretary
Dan Pennock & Ronald Vargas