Researchers of the Global Soil Forum (GSF) published two articles in the latest issue of Rural21 – The International Journal for Rural Development”. Klaus Töpfer, Executive Director of the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS), together with his colleagues Alexander Müller and Jes Weigelt of the Global Soil Forum (GSF) at IASS, have published the leading article: “Governing the transformation of soils must urgently be improved”.Under the paradigm that soils are both essential and scarce, the authors outline the value of soil for the ecosystem and society. They call for action, in order to “foster the emergence of urgently needed alliances for change… and to raise public and political awareness on the essential roles of soils”.
The articles are available for download: “Governing the transformation of soils must urgently be improved” by Klaus Töpfer, Alexander Müller and Jes Weigelt, published in Rural21, 03/2013 “Let’s put soils on the global sustainable development agenda” by Ivonne Lobos Alva, published in Rural21, 03/2013
Ivonne Lobos-Alva from the Global Soil Forum answers this call in her article “Let’s put soils on the global sustainable development agenda”. Here, she builds the frame for the discussion from the case of Guatemala. This case study was conducted as a collaborative project of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and the IASS. Guatemala is a case in point for soil and land issues, given 90 percent of its municipalities are critically affected by degrading soils. A major cause of erosion and contamination within the country has been linked to unsustainable agricultural practices. Land provisioning in Guatemala is also highly unequally distributed. Only 2.5 percent of farms occupy two thirds of the available agricultural land. According to Ms. Lobos Alva, this case illustrates the urgency to recognize soil and land as “crucial resources for sustainable development” that need to be addressed in the Social Development Goals (SDGs).