Search

Soil contamination directly concerns the safety of food, ecological environment, public’s health and capacity of social sustainable development. According to China’s official report, the overall status of China’s soil environment is not good, about 16.1% of China's soil, 19.4% of its arable land, 10.4% of grassland, 10% of forest land and 34.9% of brownfields are polluted by heavy metals and pesticides and far beyond national pollution standards. It’s an urgent issue for China to curb continual deterioration of soil pollution and remediate contaminated soil as soon as possible to decrease harm on people’s health and ecological environment. In fact, China has also already accelerated related legislation, increased capital investment and technical development to remediate soil contamination and achieved some progress. However, due to all sorts of the constraints, whether soil management system or technical capacity for decontamination in China is relatively outdated, so there remains a lot of work need to be done. It isn’t unique to China, other developing countries, including Brazil, India and so on, are also facing similar problems. As the largest developing country in the world, China's experiences, lessons and approaches to solve soil problems could benefit other developing countries in process of industrialization and urbanization, so it’s a very meaningful job to deep analyze and study the current situation and countermeasures of China’s soil pollution. In this paper, the overall situation of China’s soil pollution is introduced, the concrete causes and hazards of China’s soil contamination are analyzed, and the suggestions and advice related to soil remediation are recommended in order to improve the status of soil contamination and enhance social sustainable capacity.

This chapter on soil governance and Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) highlights the complexities of soil and land degradation and of achieving LDN itself. The LDN concept has been developed to encourage implementation of an optimal mix of measures designed to avoid, reduce and/or reverse land degradation in order to achieve a state of no net loss of healthy and productive land. Through its introduction in the global dialogue to stimulate a more effective policy response to land degradation, under the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 15, and the United Nation's Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) in 2015, LDN is embedding an important place for soil governance in this goal. Moreover, it is the underlying scientific processes and principles that provide a sound basis to understand and implement LDN, and its practical guidance for pursuing and monitoring progress towards LDN targets. Legislative provisions should enable participation of all stakeholders in the development of policy, guidelines, and ecological standards for LDN and to enable governments, landowners and land managers, and the community to share responsibility for land degradation management. However, this chapter argues that reform is essential. This includes procedures for policy implementation, development of special codes of practice, land management indicators, and the physical and ecological limits of soil and land. Good soil governance is an essential aspect of achieving LDN particularly if the supporting, regulating, and cultural services provided by soil are maintained or enhanced without significantly impairing either the soil functions that enable those services or its ecosystem functions to continue.

From the 1960s onwards, the global community became more aware of the phenomena of air and water pollution. More recently, the issues of climate change, loss of biodiversity, desertification, drought, and land degradation have become more prominent. While biodiversity loss and climate change have garnered close attention, issues of land degradation and sustainability of soils has attracted less focus in international fora and by national governments. We argue here that soil, as a vital biological and cultural resource, demands attention on the same level as biological diversity and climate change, and that this should be reflected in both international law and in legislation at national level. This article explores the elements that could form the basis of a global instrument for the conservation and sustainable use of soil, and sets out the premise for the community of nations to support the negotiation and drafting of such an instrument. It does so in light of the recent discussion on the introduction of a provision in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals on the achievement of zero net land degradation, the revision of the World Soil Charter as well as the work of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food. It also briefly explores other complementary mechanisms that can be used for promoting the sustainable use of soils.

This paper draws on the results of a case study within the SoCo project and aims to assess the benefits and constraints in the application of conservation agriculture (CA) methods in Midi-Pyrenees, France, along with an evaluation of the coherence of the policy framework designed to improve the protection of soil resources. Inappropriate agricultural practices, under particular climate, terrain and soil conditions, have contributed to make erosion the main soil degradation phenomenon in Midi-Pyrenees, particularly under spring crops. The decrease of carbon stock is also a relevant issue. Among the various techniques applied by local farmers to reduce the impact of soil degradation on their land, CA appeared popular and was therefore analysed in detail. No specific legislation on soil protection is currently available in France, while the present agri-environmental policy, including the Rural Development Plan and the cross compliance measures, focuses mainly on water quality and biodiversity. A mixed methodological approach was used consisting of a literature review on the status of soils, of the characteristics of CA practices and of the soil-related policies in force. Semi-structured interviews with selected stakeholders on the use of soil conservation techniques and on soil legislation allowed a broader discussion of the study results. The research suggests that CA can effectively contribute to mitigate soil degradation in Midi-Pyrenees, although some implementation drawbacks seem to limit its wider use mainly due to lack of a specific support. Therefore, a better targeting of existing policies would be desirable for an improved protection of soil resources. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.