Chances and Challenges in Using the Sustainable Development Goals as a New Instrument for Global Action Against Soil Degradation

Abstract

The Sustainable Development Goals represent a set of globally agreed priorities on how the world should develop economically, environmentally and socially within the next 15 years. They do contain targets dealing with soil and land degradation. Eminently important is the phrasing “strive to achieve a land degradation neutral world”. Next to direct references on land and soil in the SDGs, soils do play a crucial role in achieving further SDGs that do not directly mention land and soil issues. Thus, implementation of the soil related SDGs can only be successful if they are understood as interconnected elements of a systems approach which demands a high standards of policy coherence. Soils are multifunctional and provide a range of private, common and public goods at local national and global levels. This poses a challenge as the variety of subjective interests leads to a multitude of views on land and soil degradation issues. A more precise definition of what is to be protected by the soil related SDGs thus has to be developed. Accordingly, developing soil and land related indicators is a crucial step to improve the common understanding of the soil related SDGs. So far the negotiations on SDGs indicators at UN level, however, have not been able to come up with sufficiently clear indicators. For ongoing activities priority should be set on indicators with a cross-cutting character which are apt to integrate the various soil derived ecosystems services and that take into consideration both, local and global concerns. The implementation of the soil related SDGs should furthermore include a special obligation of those countries which are highly dependent on extraterritorial soil use in order to meet their domestic demands.