Associate Professor Dr. Ian Hannam IUCN Commission on Environmental Law

1. IUCN World Conservation CongressJeju KoreaSeptember 2012Workshop Session 0274: Proposal for a Global Soil Convention7 September 2012 Associate Professor Dr. Ian Hannam IUCN Commission on Environmental Law Chair, Specialist Group for Sustainable Use of Soil and Desertification Regional Role and Benefits of an International Soil Instrument Examples from Asian Region: regional cooperation and coordination in managing soil security and soil protection issues

2. Workshop session 0274: Proposal for a Global Soil Convention AIM OF PRESENTATION • Outline the basis for regional collaboration • Outline role and benefits of an international soil instrument at regional level • Outline two examples of regional collaboration in protection of soils: Northeast Asia and Central Asia

3. Workshop session 0274: Proposal for a Global Soil Convention ROLE OF INTERNATIONAL SOIL INSTRUMENT AT REGIONAL LEVEL: • Recognize sovereign rights but to encourage regional cooperation; • Include legal mechanisms to enable regional cooperation; • State the role of national soil legislation in regional cooperation; • Outline “regional issues” - where two or more States can cooperate with each other to manage a common soil problem(s) - based on eco-geographic approach;

4. Workshop session 0274: Proposal for a Global Soil Convention BASIC PRINCIPLE AND RESPONSIBILITY A global soil instrument could state: • “Basic principle for regional cooperation”: – where States should have (in accordance with the Charter of the UN and the principles of international law), the sovereign right to exploit their own soil resources pursuant to their own environmental policies, and the responsibility to ensure that activities within their jurisdiction or control do not cause damage to the soil resources of other States or of areas beyond the limits of national jurisdiction; and to cooperate with other States to improve the ecological integrity of soil resources; • “Rights and responsibility of individual States”: – where Parties would have a duty to ensure the security of soil resources for the benefit of present and future generations and to develop general measures for the purpose of implementing this duty; • “Basic rights” should extend to: • Healthy soil environment; • Access to information; • Participation in planning, decision-making; • Access to judicial and administrative proceedings; • Taking action to rectify a soil problem;

5. Workshop session 0274: Proposal for a Global Soil Convention Basic responsibility The soil instrument could provide for: • Parties to introduce national legislation for the security and sustainable use of soils, including provision for adequate human resources and institutional support systems; • Parties to enter into agreements and arrangements regarding the transboundary cooperation in management of soil resources;

6. Workshop session 0274: Proposal for a Global Soil Convention Mechanisms within a global soil instrument for regional cooperation in soil management: • Under a general guideline for cooperation: • Transboundary agreements (provide for amendment of existing agreements, drafting new/additional agreements); • Strategy and actions plans (can be developed under foreign donor programs); • Guideline of standards expected in cooperation; • Guideline for drafting national soil legislation; • Annex - outline main soil issues for specific regions;

7. Workshop session 0274: Proposal for a Global Soil Convention REGIONAL COOPERATION • Two examples of cooperation between States that indicate the type of mechanisms that can be considered for a global soil instrument: • Northeast Asia – the China/Mongolian grasslands • Central Asia – the High Pamir - Pamir Alai mountain region

8. Workshop session 0274: Proposal for a Global Soil Convention NORTHEAST ASIA – SOIL DEGRADATION ON THE GRASSLANDS OF MONGOLIA AND CHINA

10. Gobi - Northeast Asia region

11. Workshop session 0274: Proposal for a Global Soil Convention NORTHEAST ASIA – COMMON (Regional) SOIL DEGRADATION PROBLEMS • Soil problems common to the grassland region: • Loss of soil organic matter; • Biomass harvesting; • Wind erosion; • Water erosion; • Soil nutrient depletion; • Role of grasslands in climate change management; • Regional cooperation in managing the grasslands: • Investigating development of Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Action for grassland management – UNCCD (soil problem) and UNFCCC (climate change impacts); • Development of methods for soil carbon accounting in agricultural sector; • Identification of legal and policy framework for soil management;

12. Workshop session 0274: Proposal for a Global Soil Convention Framework of national laws to manage soil problems in grasslands: China Legal framework to manage the grasslands: • Desertification Prevention and Control Law 2002; • Water and Soil Conservation Law (revised 2011); • Grassland Law 2002; • Agriculture Law 2003; Mongolia Legal framework to manage the grasslands: • Soil Protection and Desertification Control Law (new law); • Pastureland Law (new law); • Subsoil Law 1995;

13. Workshop session 0274: Proposal for a Global Soil Convention CENTRAL ASIA SOIL DEGRADATION IN THE HIGH PAMIR-PAMIR ALAI MOUNTAINS

14. Central Asia – Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan

15. Workshop session 0274: Proposal for a Global Soil Convention CENTRAL ASIA – COMMON (Regional) SOIL DEGRADATION PROBLEMS • Soil problems • Overgrazing; • Biomass harvesting; • Water erosion; • Hill-slope instability; • Regional cooperation in managing the mountain region: • Development of joint “Strategy and Action Plan”; • Amending existing transboundary instrument (Agreement on cooperation in Ecological Monitoring 2001); • Common approach to development of soil legislation;

16. Workshop session 0274: Proposal for a Global Soil Convention National Laws arising from cooperative SLM program Kyrgyzstan • Mountain Law 2002; • Pasture Law 2009; • Soil Fertility (Protection) Law 2012; Tajikistan • Pasture Law (new); • Agricultural Land Law 2009;

17. Workshop session 0274: Proposal for a Global Soil Convention CONCLUSION • IUCN CEL investigations indicate that there is a range of provisions that can be included in a global instrument for soil to encourage regional cooperative efforts to manage common soil problems between two or more States; • Existing regional cooperative programs have successfully used a number of mechanisms that together with other mechanisms could form the basis of a general guideline under a global soil instrument;