Eighth GSP Plenary Assembly | 3 - 5 June 2020, online. Natalia Rodriguez Eugenio

1. Natalia Rodríguez
Eugenio
GSP Secretariat
Global Assessment of
Soil Pollution

2. Global Assessment of Soil Pollution
(GASP report)
Preparation process:
September2018–January2019
Developing
the
questionnaire
(93 questions,
organized in
12 sections)
February–June2019
Distributing
the
questionnaire
among GSP
focal points
and other
stakeholders
July–November2019
Collecting and
analysing the
responses
October2019–January2020
Literature
review to
complement
the responses
October2019–inprogress
Writing the
report

3. Global Assessment of Soil Pollution
(GASP report)
Questionnaire:
 developed and circulated by GSP, UNEP and WHO.
 110 responses from 70 countries.
 MoAs, research centres and MoEs main respondents.
 very limited information on the number and extent of
polluted sites.
 virtually inexistent information on diffuse pollution.
 contradictory information for some countries with
more than one respondent.

4. Global Assessment of Soil Pollution
(GASP report)
Literature review:
 about 2,000 scientific papers, national reports, UN
reports, book and newspapers reviewed.
 complexity on drawing limits, soil pollution is a very
broad issue and tackles practically all land uses, great
diversity of contaminants, health and environmental
impacts…
 10 regional and international consultants to develop
the content.
 Support from regional networks, some stronger
(Eurasia and Asia) than others.

5. Global Assessment of Soil Pollution
(GASP report)
Chapter 1: Setting the scene (ready to be sent for review)
Chapter 2: Main soil contaminants and their fate in the soil
environment (still in progress)
Chapter 3: Sources of soil pollution (under edition)
Chapter 4: Environmental, health and economic costs of soil
pollution (still in progress)
Chapter 5: Global trends of soil pollution (still in progress)
Chapter 6: Regional status of soil pollution (under edition)
Chapter 7: Actions to tackle soil pollution (under peer-review)
Chapter 8: The path ahead (still to be developed)

6. Global Assessment of Soil Pollution
(GASP report)
Report peer-review:
 Editorial Board composed by 30 reviewers:
 world-renowned experts
 RSPs representatives
 ITPS members
 remediation companies
 international NGOs and networks (NICOLE, COMMON
FORUM)
 other FAO Divisions and UNEP

7. Global Assessment of Soil Pollution
(GASP report)
Next steps:
 Finalization of the draft main report: June
 Drafting the Executive summary: July
 Review of the Executive summary by UNEA: August
 Final version of the executive summary: September
 Translation, edition and design of Executive summary:
October
 Clearance of Executive summary by UNEA: November
 Edition and design of main report: November
Launch of the report at the UNEA-5 (22 -26 February 2021)

8. Global Assessment of Soil Pollution
(GASP report)
Main conclusions:
• Soil pollution is a global problem, there are virtually no
pristine areas on the planet.
• Soil pollution is not a local problem, it knows no
borders, and it is exported from one country or region
to another. Therefore, joint and coordinated action is
needed.
• Soil pollution accelerates other soil degradation
processes and ultimately causes the loss of ecosystem
services.

9. Global Assessment of Soil Pollution
(GASP report)
Main conclusions:
• Lack of harmonized global and national data on the
presence of contaminants in soils (technical complexity,
cost of soil analysis and unavailability of capacities and
institutions mandated to do this work).
• Limited knowledge of the interactions among
contaminants, which hinders decision-making to tackle
soil pollution.

10. Global Assessment of Soil Pollution
(GASP report)
Main conclusions:
• Significant lack of research and official information
about diffuse soil pollution of agricultural lands,
threatening the production of safe food.
• International efforts to control the occurrence and
spread of highly toxic contaminants and their presence
in food for human consumption, but…
• Insufficient attention to emerging contaminants, which
in interaction with other contaminants could have
severe impacts on human health and the environment.

11. Global Assessment of Soil Pollution
(GASP report)
Main conclusions:
• Lack of reporting mechanisms on the status of the
environment, including the status of soil pollution.
Polluting sources are similar worldwide with
differences in their importance.
• More comprehensive approaches to soil pollution
monitoring and identifying risks to human and
environmental health are needed.

12. Global Assessment of Soil Pollution
(GASP report)
Main conclusions:
• Need for a global plan of action to:
1. Strengthen existing international mechanisms (chemical
conventions and food quality controls);
2. Increase the investment at all levels on soil pollution activities
including the establishment of a Global Observatory of Soil
Pollution under exiting mechanisms and organizations that
deals with this theme;
3. Raise awareness about the issue of soil pollution and
implement advocacy effort to prevent, mandate and
remediate it;
4. Build technical capacities for soil contaminants analysis
(through networks such as GLOSOLAN) and risk assessment at
national level;

13. Global Assessment of Soil Pollution
(GASP report)
• Need for a global plan of action to:
5. Promote the collection, analysis and mapping of reliable and
harmonized national data on soil pollution to feed a new
GLoSIS/pollution;
6. Invest on targeted research and actions to understand,
prevent and remediate soil pollution;
7. Develop strategies to reduce and prevent the impact of soil
pollution based on the VGSSM;
8. Implement a network of remediation pilot projects to
demonstrate the complete cycle of soil pollution;

14. Benefits of the report preparation:
• the GSP Secretariat has developed synergies and
cooperation with other international panels and
NGOs (SurF, NICOLE, COMMON FORUM, Pure
Earth, etc.) and with UNEP
• Need to keep them engaged for future actions and
projects
• The GSP may be the leading voice on getting a
global agreement to tackle soil pollution
Global Assessment of Soil Pollution
(GASP report)

15. Thank you for
your attention