Submitted by
annayevt
on Fri, 09/25/2026 - 12:28
General Information
Resolution
52657
Period covered
Activities to implement this Resolution from Activity Reports
| Relevant operative para(s) of Res/Rec | Activities Overview | Description | Status | Action |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1, 2, 3 | Scientific/technical activities | Established the GLISS Working Group under WCEL SoilSAL and mobilised a multidisciplinary group of legal, policy and soil-science experts. A four-year implementation approach, regular meeting cycle and collaborative work arrangements were put in place. Five meetings were held from March to August 2026; the sixth is scheduled for September, with significant preparation completed. | On-going | Full activity report |
| 1, 2, 3 | Capacity building | Established a secured collaboration platform to help organise tasks and subtasks, manage working group documents, share research resources, record meeting outcomes and track progress over time. | Completed | Full activity report |
| 1 | Scientific/technical activities | Established a first sub-working group on sustainable soil management/use terminology. | On-going | Full activity report |
| 1 | Scientific/technical activities | Compiled foundational texts in international environmental law and policy. | Completed | Full activity report |
| 1 | Scientific/technical activities | Collaborating with GLISS experts to review recurring legal principles across selected international and regional binding and non-binding instruments to select relevant legal principles for soil security. Assessing whether and how the nine soil policy principles underpinning soil security can be translated into legal principles for inclusion in a global legal instrument on soil security. | On-going | Full activity report |
| 1 | Scientific/technical activities | Advanced the core architecture of a future global legal instrument on soil security by developing its objectives, scope, definitions and preparing a working Preamble. The text is being refined through comparative legal, policy and scientific reviews. | On-going | Full activity report |
| 1 | Scientific/technical activities | Reviewing and comparing possible legal forms for a global legal instrument on soil security. | On-going | Full activity report |
| 1, 3 | Policy influencing/advocacy | Examined short-term and long-term legal strategies for implementing Resolution 8.007. | Completed | Full activity report |
| 1, 3 | Policy influencing/advocacy | Assessed alternative approaches to a global legal instrument on soil security. | Completed | Full activity report |
| 1, 3 | Convene stakeholders/Networking | Continuously screens prospective GLISS members and identifies additional scientists, legal experts and specialists whose expertise would add value. Planned outreach also maps universities, scientific institutions, relevant IUCN bodies and soil-governance initiatives that could contribute to or support the process. | Planned | Full activity report |
| 3 | Policy influencing/advocacy | Identified the states and NGOs that supported Resolution 8.007 at the IUCN World Conservation Congress with a quantitative analysis. | Completed | Full activity report |
| 1, 3 | Other (please specify) | Transparency: Mapping the expertise, institutional affiliations and geographical representation of GLISS Working Group members. |
Planned | Full activity report |
| 1, 2, 3 | Convene stakeholders/Networking | Coordinating with the Resolution 8.002 soil-biodiversity and sustainable-agriculture workstream. GLISS Chair and Deputy Chair participated to two meetings. The Chair will participate to the first meeting of the Cross-Commissions WG on "Agriculture and Food Systems and Biodiversity". |
On-going | Full activity report |
| 1, 2 | Scientific/technical activities | Conducting a literature review to examine the legal significance and distinctions between protection, conservation, restoration, rehabilitation, sustainable soil management and sustainable use and development a relevant terminology. | Planned | Full activity report |
| 1, 2 | Scientific/technical activities | Assessing how soil biodiversity, soil functions, soil services, ecological integrity and human health should be reflected in the instrument. | On-going | Full activity report |
| 1, 2 | Scientific/technical activities | Prepare a proposal clarifying the relationship between GLISS and the voluntary guidelines of the European Soil Partnership, including their relevance to terminology, scientific coherence and implementation pathways. | Planned | Full activity report |
| 1, 3 | Scientific/technical activities | Establish a second sub-working group on the GLISS and Rio Conventions relationship to analyse complementarity, mutual supportiveness, scientific and institutional cooperation, compatible monitoring and reviewing, acknowledgement of overlaps and avoidance of unnecessary duplication. | Planned | Full activity report |
| 1, 2 | Scientific/technical activities | Establish a third sub-working group on definitions and terminology. | Planned | Full activity report |
| 1, 3 | Scientific/technical activities | Within the second WG on GLISS and the Rio Conventions: review of the UNCCD COP17 decisions/CRIC24/CST17 documents and The Coalition of Action 4 Soil Health (CA4SH) knowledge product 02 "How Healthy Soil Aligns the Rio Conventions and Global Agendas". | Planned | Full activity report |
| 1, 3 | Scientific/technical activities | Preparation of a legal and institutional brief analysing how soils are framed and operationalised within the UNCCD, CBD and UNFCCC frameworks. | Planned | Full activity report |
| 3 | Education/Communication/Raising awareness | Development of policy briefs and visual materials explaining the soil security concept and its relationship with other soil governance concepts. | Planned | Full activity report |
| 1, 2 | Scientific/technical activities | Collaborate with the Resolution 002 Commission Expert Group on Soil Biodiversity to ensure that biodiversity components are scientifically robust and legally and politically operational. | Planned | Full activity report |
| 2, 3 | Education/Communication/Raising awareness | Develop targeted policy briefs and visual materials for policy audiences, including UNCCD national focal points and relevant ministries. Outputs will include concise country-level legal and policy gap analyses on soil protection, alongside comparative summaries of key soil-governance concepts (including land-soil distinctions), and the legal effects, coverage and gaps of international and regional instruments. | Planned | Full activity report |
Actors involved from Activity Reports
| IUCN Members | IUCN Commissions | IUCN Secretariat | Other non-IUCN related organisations |
|---|---|---|---|
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Challenges / lessons learned from Activity Reports
| Challenges / lessons learned | Description | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Lack of awareness / engagement | Global participation spans widely separated time zones and relies largely on voluntary availability, which can affect attendance and the depth of engagement. Advance circulation of focused questions, asynchronous drafting in shared documents, intersessional work and small task-specific groups help sustain substantive participation between meetings. |
Full activity report |
| Other (please specify) | Translating science into law: the group is distinguishing core definitions and principles from indicators, methodologies and thresholds that may be better developed in later provisions, annexes or guidance and operationalising a concept rooted in soil science and policy. |
Full activity report |
| Other (please specify) | Soil-governance specific challenge: soil governance is fragmented across scales and within legql qnd policy frameworks, avoiding duplication requires an exhaustive comparison with the relevant international and regional instruments to identify gaps and complementarity. |
Full activity report |
| Insufficient / lack of resources | Given the reliance on voluntary expert time, prioritization, focused intersessional assignments, and staged consultations are required. While these measures are essential, they often lead to slower progress toward achieving our objectives and an uneven distribution of workload, with a small core of contributors carrying a disproportionate share of drafting and review. The absence of budget for in-person meetings, limiting the depth of deliberation achievable in virtual formats. |
Full activity report |
| Coordination issues | Consensus-based decision-making safeguards legitimacy and expert buy-in but extends timelines when views diverge. This is particularly pronounced at the science-policy-law interface. Structured options, recorded areas of convergence and clearly assigned follow-up work help maintain progress without prematurely closing important questions. |
Full activity report |
Report status
Draft