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Unlocking the Potential of Soil Organic Carbon: A Feasible Way Forward

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International Yearbook of Soil Law and Policy 2018

Part of the book series: International Yearbook of Soil Law and Policy ((IYSLP,volume 2018))

Abstract

After the publication of the Status of the World’s Soil Resources (SWSR) in 2015, the Intergovernmental Technical Panel of Soils (ITPS) and the Global Soil Partnership (GSP) concluded that the increasing soil organic carbon (SOC) represents an important step and solution to cope with environmental problems such as food security, soil degradation, as well as climate change mitigation and adaptation. In the last 3 years, the GSP has been actively working to incorporate SOC into the global agenda. To this end, a series of activities have been developed to contribute to the know-how required to measure, monitor, manage, maintain, and/or increase SOC stocks in a changing world. This chapter underlines the importance of SOC in relation to climate change, human health, food security, and biodiversity.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The increase of SOC levels in soil require baseline data in order to plan actions and monitoring on the site in order to verify that the expected effects have been obtained.

  2. 2.

    FAO—Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

  3. 3.

    1 PgC = 1 billion metric tonnes of carbon.

  4. 4.

    GEOSS—Global Earth Observation System of Systems.

  5. 5.

    Recommendation 3: All barriers preventing the implementation or adoption of sustainable soil management practices and systems should be assessed and policy and technical solutions proposed to create an enabling environment for sustainable soil management.

  6. 6.

    SDG Indicator 15.3.1: Proportion of land that is degraded over total land area.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Land and Water Division, Global Soil Partnership Secretariat, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, Italy

    Ronald Vargas-Rojas, Rosa Cuevas-Corona, Yusuf Yigini, Yuxin Tong, Zineb Bazza & Liesl Wiese

  2. Department of Soil Science, Stellenbosch University, Western Cape, South Africa

    Liesl Wiese

Authors
  1. Ronald Vargas-Rojas
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  2. Rosa Cuevas-Corona
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  3. Yusuf Yigini
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  4. Yuxin Tong
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  5. Zineb Bazza
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  6. Liesl Wiese
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ronald Vargas-Rojas .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. German Environment Agency, Dessau, Germany

    Harald Ginzky

  2. University of Exeter, Exeter, UK

    Elizabeth Dooley

  3. Specialist Group on Sustainable Soils and Desertification, IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law, Kleinmachnow, Germany

    Irene L. Heuser

  4. Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda

    Emmanuel Kasimbazi

  5. Research Centre for European Environmental Law, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany

    Till Markus

  6. Research Institute of Environmental Law, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China

    Tianbao Qin

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Vargas-Rojas, R., Cuevas-Corona, R., Yigini, Y., Tong, Y., Bazza, Z., Wiese, L. (2019). Unlocking the Potential of Soil Organic Carbon: A Feasible Way Forward. In: Ginzky, H., Dooley, E., Heuser, I., Kasimbazi, E., Markus, T., Qin, T. (eds) International Yearbook of Soil Law and Policy 2018. International Yearbook of Soil Law and Policy, vol 2018. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00758-4_18

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00758-4_18

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