are a precondition for a sustainable development. Without fertile soils, security of
food production is at risk. Moreover policy makers saw that fertile soils are needed
for the production of plants for renewable energy, too. Scientific evidence showed
that fertile soils are the second largest biological sequester of carbon and soils host an
almost infinite biodiversity.
9
Soils provide the following services which are indispensable for sustainable
development:
• Basis for food production and production of plants for renewable energy
• Sequester for carbon and therefore important in the fight of climate change
• Host for biodiversity
• Vital role in world’s biological cycle by inter alia storage for nutrients or filter for
groundwater from hazardous substances
• Cultural and biological archive
Looking at the current state of soils worldwide, figures of the ongoing or even
acceleration of land degradation are alarming. About one third of world’s soils are
already affected.
10 An area of the size Italy has been and will be—if nothing
happens—constantly degraded per year.
11
Soils are generally immobile and local. They are mostly privately owned.
12
However they provide services which are transboundary in nature as these services
are essential for sustainable development.
13 Thus from a factual point of view
sustainable management of soils could be regarded as global challenge.
14
Anja Eikerman has branded the very illustrative term “hybrid good” for pointing
out this duplicity with regard to forests.
15 Forests and soils are very comparable.
Both forests and soils are local and generally immobile. Both are usually privately
owned. At the same time both forests and soils provide essential services for
sustainable development. Thus term “hybrid good” seems to be also an appropriate
“concept” for soils.
Scholars have raised the question whether sustainable management of soils or
land degradation is a “global concern of humankind”, a legal principle which at least
9 Ginzky (2016), p. 2.
10 Ginzky (2016), p. 3.
11 Linz and Lobos (2016), p. 197.
12 “Privately owned” encompasses collective rights on land as also in this case there is a community
holding rights on a specific piece of land.
13 Land/soil degradation could cause hunger, poverty, migration and political or even military
conflicts. Ginzky (2016), p. 7; Boer et al. (2016), p. 68; see also Flasbarth (2016), p. 17 mentioning
that even the Syrian conflict has been at least partly caused by land degradation processes.
14 The discussion has been so far focusing whether land degradation is a common concern of
mankind. However, as soils are the fundamental component of land and degradation is the contrary
to sustainable management, this previous debate is also relevant for soils or the conservation of
fertile soils.
15 Eikermann (2014), p. 4; Eikermann (2017), p. 417.
Good Governance for “Sustainable Management of Soil” on. . .
37
food production is at risk. Moreover policy makers saw that fertile soils are needed
for the production of plants for renewable energy, too. Scientific evidence showed
that fertile soils are the second largest biological sequester of carbon and soils host an
almost infinite biodiversity.
9
Soils provide the following services which are indispensable for sustainable
development:
• Basis for food production and production of plants for renewable energy
• Sequester for carbon and therefore important in the fight of climate change
• Host for biodiversity
• Vital role in world’s biological cycle by inter alia storage for nutrients or filter for
groundwater from hazardous substances
• Cultural and biological archive
Looking at the current state of soils worldwide, figures of the ongoing or even
acceleration of land degradation are alarming. About one third of world’s soils are
already affected.
10 An area of the size Italy has been and will be—if nothing
happens—constantly degraded per year.
11
Soils are generally immobile and local. They are mostly privately owned.
12
However they provide services which are transboundary in nature as these services
are essential for sustainable development.
13 Thus from a factual point of view
sustainable management of soils could be regarded as global challenge.
14
Anja Eikerman has branded the very illustrative term “hybrid good” for pointing
out this duplicity with regard to forests.
15 Forests and soils are very comparable.
Both forests and soils are local and generally immobile. Both are usually privately
owned. At the same time both forests and soils provide essential services for
sustainable development. Thus term “hybrid good” seems to be also an appropriate
“concept” for soils.
Scholars have raised the question whether sustainable management of soils or
land degradation is a “global concern of humankind”, a legal principle which at least
9 Ginzky (2016), p. 2.
10 Ginzky (2016), p. 3.
11 Linz and Lobos (2016), p. 197.
12 “Privately owned” encompasses collective rights on land as also in this case there is a community
holding rights on a specific piece of land.
13 Land/soil degradation could cause hunger, poverty, migration and political or even military
conflicts. Ginzky (2016), p. 7; Boer et al. (2016), p. 68; see also Flasbarth (2016), p. 17 mentioning
that even the Syrian conflict has been at least partly caused by land degradation processes.
14 The discussion has been so far focusing whether land degradation is a common concern of
mankind. However, as soils are the fundamental component of land and degradation is the contrary
to sustainable management, this previous debate is also relevant for soils or the conservation of
fertile soils.
15 Eikermann (2014), p. 4; Eikermann (2017), p. 417.
Good Governance for “Sustainable Management of Soil” on. . .
37