Legal and institutional frameworks for sustainable soils : a preliminary report

The 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development placed a responsibility on States to protect the local, regional and global environment, especially problems shared by the whole community such as soil degradation. The knowledge of the severe degradation situation of the world’s soils and of the poor state of the soil legislation led the IUCN to pass a Soil Resolution at its World Congress in October 2000 for the IUCN Environmental Law Program to develop legal guidelines, explanatory material and investigate a global legal instrument for the sustainable use of soils, while paying particular attention to the ecological needs of soil and their ecological functions for the conservation of biodiversity and the maintenance of human life. This book discusses an ecological-based rationale for new international, national and regional legislation and institutional frameworks for sustainable soil, and a basis for the preparation of the instruments.