Ninth Working Session of the Intergovernmental Technical Panel on Soils (ITPS), 10 ‐ 12 October 2018, FAO HQ, Rome, Italy

1. Zineb Bazza
GSP Secretariat
Assessing Sustainable Soil
Management

3. The overall goal for all parties is to ensure that soils
are management sustainably and that degraded soils
are rehabilitated or restored.

4. Objectives
• To provide guidance about how the sustainability
of soil management can be assessed.
• To provide a starting point for regional and local
assessments of SSM carried out under the pillars
of the GSP.

5. Sustainable Soil Management
1. Sustainability: soil management must maintain or
enhance the ecosystem services by the soil
1. Management: should lead to the maintenance or
enhancement of services and is NOT sustainable if
it causes significant impairment of either soil
functions or biodiversity.

6. Soil health/ quality vs SSM
• Indicators for soil health/ quality already exist
• SSM requires trade-offs
What are the impacts of human use of soil on
ecosystem services, soil functions, and
biodiversity?

7. Stages in the assessment of SSM
1. Compilation of information on current or
proposed management
2. Identification of management related threats to
ecosystem services, soil functions and
biodiversity.
3. Compilation of science-based information on
acceptable level of threats to ecosystem services,
soil functions and biodiversity

8. 4. Compilation of local knowledge on acceptable
levels of threats
5. Linkage of current or proposed management to
identified threats
6. Comparison of probable effects of current or
proposed management to acceptable level of
threats
7. Assessment of socio-economic and cultural
implications of current or proposed management
measures

9. 8. Implementation of changes to management to
achieve acceptable levels of threats or initiation
of efforts to overcome barriers to adoption of
such changes
9. Recognition of achievement of sustainability

10. Outcome of the assessment
The soil management currently being applied could
be assessed to determine if it is sustainable (stages 6
and 7)
OR
The current or proposed management contains
practices that are deemed to be unsustainable (at
stage 6)

11. Outcome of the assessment
If unsustainable, try to reduce the threat using
alternative management options (VGSSM), and if
there are no viable options (culturally, socially and
economically acceptable), the management is not
sustainable.

12. Discussion