Soils: The ‘neglected’ resource?

AS early as 1980, UN’s Environmental Law Program encouraged and promoted the  development of legislation in the field of soil conservation. Except for FAO’s Soil Charter (1981) and a few regional agreements, little has been done to address the use of soils on the basis of sound principles of resource management to enhance soil productivity, to prevent soil erosion and degradation and to reduce the loss of good farmlands to non-farming purposes.

The Soils Atlas 2015 identified various reasons for the increasing loss of land and soils, i.e. “cities and roads are spreading, heavy agricultural machinery compacts the ground, and pesticides and fertilizers decimate soil organisms. In addition, there is wind and water erosion.”