Capacity Building for Developing National Legal and Policy Frameworks for Soil Conservation and Protection

There has been significant activity in capacity-building approaches to improve the environmental law and policy for soil conservation and protection in recent years. The approaches described in this paper stem from international and national level investigations and reforms which have produced legal and policy frameworks, guidelines and legislative information on the sustainable use of soils and land degradation control. These approaches have developed from researching environmental law materials, experiences of national reforms, regional reforms and review by environmental law and scientific experts. Various international environmental law organizations have carried out the studies and reviews, especially the IUCN (The World Conservation Union) Commission on Environmental Law. At the international level, the main objective is to develop a clear picture of the environmental law, including the role of multilateral treaties and regional treaties, in soil protection, and prepare draft legal rules and commentaries and recommend ways to improve the international environmental law for sustainable use of soils. At the national level there have been investigations into the legal, policy and institutional aspects of soil protection in a number of countries, for example, the People’s Republic of China, Iceland, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan (Pamir-Alai eco-region) and the European Union (EU). Comprehensive legal and policy frameworks prepared by individual nations have emphasized integrated ecosystem management and sustainable use of soils. International training and workshops on techniques for analyzing national legislative systems for sustainable land management and sustainable use of soils have been held in a number of countries, for example, China, Iceland, Thailand, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, and reports have been prepared on the legal and institutional systems for soil conservation in Australia, New Zealand, USA and the European Union. Recent investigations have commenced in the Balkans and Brazil. There is now a variety of legislative materials available on the status of soil conservation law and policy at the international and national levels, as well as associated training materials to assist countries to reform domestic laws and policies.