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Towards a Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection Lieve Van Camp

Towards a Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection Lieve Van Camp. History. 1998 - Soil Forum: Bonn, Berlin, Naples 2001 - 6th Environmental Action Programme 2001 - Sustainable Development Strategy Communication adopted 16 April 2002 Environment Council: June 2002

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Towards a Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection Lieve Van Camp

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  1. Towards a Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection Lieve Van Camp

  2. History • 1998 - Soil Forum: Bonn, Berlin, Naples • 2001 - 6th Environmental Action Programme • 2001 - Sustainable Development Strategy Communication adopted 16 April 2002 • Environment Council: June 2002 • Economic and Social Committee : October 2002 • Committee of Regions: end 2002 • European Parliament - debate started

  3. Objectives • Existing policies • Air • Water • New policy soil • Objective: sustainable use + soil protecting

  4. Soil versus Land • Soil = upper layer of land • Land-use • Communication “Planning and Environment - the Territorial Dimension”

  5. Main functions of soil • Food and biomass production • Storage, filtering and transformation • Habitat and gene pool • Cultural environment • Source of raw materials

  6. SOIL FEATURES RELEVANT FOR POLICY MAKING Soil policy requires... Local perspective Variable medium Soil feature Prevention and precaution Non renewable resource Storage/buffer capacity Anticipation Source of biodiversity Protection Agricultural soils - both precious and limited Sustainable use Subject to property rights Degradation and remediation of local pollution Environmental liability

  7. Threats to soil • Erosion • Decline in organic matter • Contamination • Sealing • Compaction • Decline in biodiversity • Salinisation • Floods and landslides Council: linkages to water

  8. Erosion

  9. Decline in organic matter

  10. Contamination

  11. Sealing

  12. Compaction

  13. Decline in biodiversity

  14. Salinisation

  15. Floods and landslides

  16. Conclusions from these threats • Soil degradation processes: • Largely driven by human activity. • Currently taking place in the EU and candidate countries. • Lack of policy relevant information on the extent and the significance. • No evidence of any trend reversal.

  17. Soil as a global issue • Climate change : soil as a carbon sink • Food security • Poverty alleviation • Biodiversity • Key element in land use

  18. International ConventionsThe wider discussion • Framework Convention on Climate Change (CCC) (1992) • Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) (1992) • Convention to Combat Desertification (CCD) (1994) Council recognises sustainable soil use for poverty alleviation worldwide

  19. The way forward - Thematic strategy for soil protection - 2004 • Proposal for soil monitoring legislation • Related to the threats • Knowledge base for action • Communication dealing with • Erosion • Decline in organic matter • Soil contamination - linkage to health issues Council also sees sealing as an issue

  20. Community policies • Environmental Policy • Common Agriculture Policy • Regional Policy • Research Policy • Transport Policy • Single Market implications of protection and remediation (competition)

  21. The way forward - from 2002 onwards • Environmental policy initiatives • Sewage sludge revision • Compost directive • Mining waste directive

  22. Soil Policy Development - Organisational Set-up Member States / Stakeholders meetings Chair DG ENV ISWG = Interservice Working Group TWG = Technical Working Group Commission ISWG Chair DG ENV Advisory Forum (Expert Group) Chair DG ENV Technical co-ordination group and secretariat Chair DG ENV TWG 1 Monitoring TWG 2 Erosion TWG 3 Organic matter TWG 4 Contamination 10/10/2002

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