Results
Síðast uppfært: Fimmtudagur, 27. nóvember 2008 12:27 Þriðjudagur, 25. nóvember 2008 11:52
Results
The results of the International Forum on Soils, Society and Global Change, including full papers on keynote presentations, working group reports and the overall statement of the Forum will be published in a preceeding book in due time as well as on this webpage.
The conclusions of the working groups can be found here:
Working Group 1 Report
Working Group 2 Report
Working Group 3 Report
Working Group 4 Report
Working Group 5 Report
Below is the Selfoss Statement, endorsed by the Forum participants
International Forum on Soils, Society and Global Change
Programme For Action
Programme For Action
Successful implementation on the ground of efforts to prevent, mitigate and adapt to environmental and social changes begins with the stewardship of the soil by and for the users of the land.
Stewardship of the soil results in:
- Conservation of the soil resource, and of the ecosystem services that depend upon it
Improved food security and fibre productivity for human well-being and development
Increased water storage capacity and flood prevention, and water supply
Increased capture and retention of carbon and other greenhouse gases to mitigate global climate change.
Experiences of soil stewardship and restoration efforts in communities around the world are diverse and location-specific. Bringing together these experiences from the International Forum on Soils, Society and Global Change held in Selfoss, Iceland to celebrate one hundred years of soil conservation and vegetation restoration in the country, we build our common global soil stewardship. We have resolved on the following actions. Recognizing that there are many institutions already engaged in the field that are not mentioned below, we invite other interested partners to engage in the process.
- A set of guiding principles on soil stewardship and land care is being drafted by an informal working group emerging from the Forum. These will be used as the basis for raising awareness, education and training activities, preferably through joint initiatives across the three UN conventions. The working group will also collate practical sources of knowledge and lessons from experience into a knowledge base to assist land care practitioners around the world. The knowledge base will include successful examples of land literacy projects aimed at assisting young people to ‘read the land’ and information on the emerging issue of carbon sequestration benefits from Landcare initiatives. An International Year of Land Care may be proposed. A subcommittee of the Forum Working Group has been formed to explore these possibilities with interested governments. An interpretative statement to the Earth Charter to promote the soil ethic will be prepared by relevant interested parties.
- A joint mechanism amongst the Conventions is to be initiated by the UNCCD to operationalize synergies in implementation of the MEAs. These will begin with a request to the IPPC to develop a Special Report on Land Degradation and Climate Change (as done previously for the CBD with respect to biodiversity). This document, together with other existing documents addressing synergies in the subject matters of the three Conventions, will be assessed by an ad hoc group of experts under the JLG. Based on this assessment, the group will compile guidelines for joint implementation of the three Conventions, targeting focal points and donors of these Conventions. A second avenue of achieving synergies in implementation will be a certification mechanism independently developed by each Convention, for assessing the added benefit of actions under one Convention, to the subject matters of the other Conventions. The CBD will be requested to review its work on agricultural biodiversity, to create an advisory body, and to identify a lead agency for its implementation.
- To enable better land-use decision-making, primary data must be augmented, maintained and improved. This requires ongoing financial and technical support to mandated national, regional and international institutions. In this process, it is important that methodologies for assessment of land degradation from the perspective of climate change, desertification and other major global processes are harmonized across organizations and updated as needed. A fast-tracking mechanism has to be developed for incorporation of new data into assessments. To ensure access, datasets collected at any level need to be centrally cataloged. Knowledge management should become a fundamental component in all projects funded by GEF and other major donors. Scientists and scientific institutions have the responsibility to make information and knowledge available for land users and decision makers at all levels. We encourage the WBCSD and the GM to devise an action plan for the greater involvement of businesses in supporting sustainable land management and related capacity building. WOCAT and KM:Land should bring together networks to establish a knowledge base that makes lessons learned accessible and facilitates capacity building.
Promoting soil stewardship and Land Care: Operationalizing synergies amongst the Conventions through implementation of soil stewardship initiatives on the ground:
Enabling knowledge management to inform better decision-making:
- The IUCN Commission on Environmental Law Specialist Group on Sustainable Use of Soils and Desertification will develop guidelines for national governments to strengthen the capacity of their legal frameworks to implement the CCD and to develop new or improved soils legislation, including that with respect to soil contamination. The Forum recognized that this group has also been engaged for some time in discussion on the formulation of a new, binding, international instrument concerning the protection and sustainable use of soils. This work will be progressed by the Commission, in consultation with the soil science community, with the aim of strengthening the current legal, policy, ethical and institutional frameworks at both national and international levels. Enhanced human capacity and knowledge management for the implementation of laws and policies will be promoted through the above actions proposed by the Forum.
- Improving legislation and policy frameworks through capacity building:
- At least a quarter of the excess CO2 in the atmosphere has come from land use change in the last century. The challenge is to put it back in the soils, where it is needed – so a better understanding of processes, practices, measurement and monitoring of carbon sequestration in terrestrial ecosystems is needed. The global potential of 1 to 2 billion tons of C sequestration by restoration of degraded ecosystems is estimated to be US$30 billion/year at present market values.
Priority investment by donors and the private sector should strengthen capacity, policy and assessment for carbon sequestration. The Working Group calls on the CDM, and national and international organizations to transform market mechanisms, reduce risks, reduce transaction costs, and maximize the multiple economic, social benefits from carbon sequestration in soils and the allied gains in ecosystem health and resilience and containing climate change. The benefits of land restoration will depend on strengthening human resource and technical capacity of local institutions. With these actions, it is possible to expand the carbon markets – state-mandated, CDM and voluntary – and maximize benefits to local land users.
A high-level round table of scientists, business leaders and policy makers is called for to put this issue in the mainstream of development policy.
- Galvanizing support from business and decision-makers for soil stewardship including recognition of carbon sequestration benefits:
DON’T FORGET THE SOIL
