Global Symposium on Soil Pollution

Be the solution to soil pollution

Hybrid Event, 02/05/2018 - 04/05/2018

The Global Symposium on Soil Pollution (GSOP18) will take place at FAO headquarters from 2 to 4 May 2018. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization and its Global Soil Partnership (GSP), Intergovernmental Technical Panel on Soils (ITPS), together with the Secretariats of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions, UN Environment and World Health Organization (WHO), agreed to explore the option of a jointly organized Global Symposium on Soil Pollution as a common platform to discuss and elaborate the latest information on the status, trends and actions (both scientific and political) on soil pollution and its threatful consequences on human health, food safety and the environment.

The symposium is the first step in implementing the Voluntary Guidelines for Sustainable Soil Management in terms of preventing and reducing harmful substances in soil as a way to maintain healthy soils and food safety in accordance with the Sustainable Development Goals. Specifically, the symposium outcomes should provide scientific evidence to support actions and decisions to prevent and reduce soil pollution for increased food security and nutrition, and ecosystem services, and promote the remediation of polluted sites.

Main aim

The Symposium aims to support the implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines on Sustainable Soil Management in terms of combating soil pollution by collecting information, reviewing existing frameworks, launching global activities to reduce soil pollution, and restore polluted sites.

Themes

Theme 1: Soil pollution on agricultural fields and other land uses
Theme 2: The impact of soil pollution on food production and safety, the environment and overall human well-being
Theme 3: Remediation of polluted sites
Theme 4: Global status of soil pollution

Objectives

Examine the current scientific and technical understanding of soil pollution and its effects on food production and safety;
Critically reflect on the impact of land use decisions at the national level (e.g. related to mining, and intensive agriculture and livestock production) on soil pollution and eventually, air and water where polluted soil or its pollutants can be transported by erosion processes or water runoff;
Identify limitations and prioritize key challenges related to restoring polluted sites;
Review existing international policies, agreements and frameworks addressing sources of pollution to agricultural land in order to assess their effectiveness and propose ways to improve them; and
Survey and review the use of soil thresholds for pollutants globally and explore additional research and policy needs.