Outcome document: Be the Solution to Soil Pollution – FR and ES language versions available
The Global Symposium on Soil Pollution (GSOP18)’s Outcome Document: Be the Solution to Soil Pollution is now available also in French and Spanish. This document provides scientific evidence to support actions and decisions to prevent and reduce soil pollution for increased food security, nutrition, and ecosystem services, and to promote the remediation of polluted sites.
This 21-page document - now available in English, French and Spanish - set out policy recommendations and suggested actions to enhance the prevention, minimization and remediation of soil pollution through the promotion of sustainable soil management (SSM) in the field. It is meant as a reference for informed decision-making for a wide range of committed stakeholders, including government officials, policy makers, and land managers. It also encourages the implementation of soil management and land use planning strategies at regional/local level providing a basis on which States can build up their own policies, legislation to fight against soil pollution.
The recommendations are structured around the four themes of the symposium held on 2-4 May 2018 at FAO headquarters, and focus on the identification of the main sources of soil pollution, the associated risks for food safety, the environment and human health, the available methods for monitoring, assessing and remediating soil pollution, and the existence of national or regional policies/guidelines that include threshold values for different pollutants.
Participants from 100 countries, including representatives of FAO member states, scientists and practitioners working on the remediation of polluted soils, the agrochemical industry and representatives from the private sector and civil society identified weaknesses in knowledge and regulations that led to the consensual definition of the line of work and the joint agenda for action.