GSOC17: conclusions and way

forwardRonald VargasGSP Secretary

A very successful step…….- UN Scientific Panels and Agencies working together for a common

objective: soil organic carbon sequestration and overall Sustainable Soil Management agenda.

- Scientific community actively engaged.

- Member countries (Policy/decision makers in the driving seat).

Conclusions? Take home messages

SOC: sequestering more?- Efforts should be made to at least MAINTAIN current SOC stocks (by

reducing degradation).

- Ideally, we should foster SOC Sequestration through proven and locally contextualized practices, WHEREVER IS SCIENTIFICALLY SUITABLE (not all soils).

- Innovation is crucial for this, but we should be innovative in sound practices, no renaming or creating new concepts only.

Maintain the SOC content of these gifted soils.

Launch of the International Network

of Black Soils

Soil/land users- Our farmers, livestock keepers, etc., many are not interested/even aware

about SOC.

- They are concerned about SOIL PRODUCTIVITY.

- They are also concerned about sustainability in time (of their soils and their livelihoods-income). Yields to be constant in time!

- Point 1: we should promote SOC maintenance/sequestration under a bigger umbrella which is SUSTAINABLE SOIL MANAGEMENT.

- Point 2: SOC as a factor that foster MULTIPLE BENEFITS such as Food security and Nutrition, Poverty reduction, Climate change adaptation, Land degradation neutrality, Sustainable Development (SDGs).

Who?- Soil users (farmers) should be on the driving seat as they are the one facing

the challenges of climate change and others.- This symposium was POSITIVE because it brings together Scientists and

Policy/decision makers from governments.- All stakeholders should be involved in pursuing to unlock the potential of SOC.

- Science will be useful, only if policy and decision makers could use this science for developing/implementing national policies, programmes and actions.

- We could also work straight with users directly, but in the medium/long term the impact will not be enough as governments need to understand that there is a need to take action and need to address the issues. Otherwise, there will not be consciousness/ownership of the issue.

Developing national capacities

- We should EMPOWER developing countries to be able to asses, map, report and monitor their own SOC.

- There is no benefit if we keep producing data/researching for them. What is the benefit? They will not feel ownership of the results and will not use them for any national action.

- Support/identify National priorities (starting from users).

- Instead, we need to DEVELOP/STRENGTHEN NATIONAL CAPACITIES on Soils.

Role of Science

Build scientific confidence (even small actions) and reduce uncertainty.

UN Panels to work on converting scientific evidences results into simple language for use by member countries (policy briefs).

Extension services: crucial for bringing good practices to users……if not existing, alternative approaches such as Soil Doctors, Farmer Field Schools.

Awareness raising: fundamental (see the power of the IYS and WSD).

Incentives Incentives for the provision of ecosystems services (SOC Sequestration).

Some cases, but not scaled up.

SO Carbon markets?

Some countries are not supportive of incentives policies.

Farmer’s priorities vs climate change requisites

This needs to be carefully explored in order to see whether if we should promote it or not.

Way forward

GSOC17 Outcome document “Unlocking the potential of Soil

Organic Carbon”• Scientific, policy and advocacy messages/questions to the GSOC17

answers developed by all of you.

• Core of the document (just provided)

• Scientific committee composed by IPCC, ITPS, UNCCD-SPI and WMO to review the document and finalize it.

• By 31 March

• To be submitted to COP13-UNCCD, COP23-UNFCCC, GSP Plenary Assembly and FAO Council, COP CBD, IPCC and others.

• During 2017

GSOC17 Special Issue in a high-impact Journal

(Global Change Biology)• Preparation of the proposal and submission to the Journal (7th April)

• Editors• List of authors• Paper titles• Summary of the papers

• Feedback from the journal

• Communication to the authors and timeline for submitting full articles.

More tasks

• Join and contribute to the ongoing Global Soil Organic Carbon Map (GSOCMap).

• Use the GSP as an inclusive platform (member countries and other stakeholders) for facilitating the implementation of the Outcome Document.

• Implement the International Network of Black Soils.

• Establish a working group (lead by ITPS, IPCC, UNCCD-SPI) to develop Guidelines for Measuring, Mapping, Reporting and Monitoring of SOC.

More tasks

• Support to new areas of targeted research on SOC (particularly research in developing countries by local researchers).

• Establish a Working Group for developing the technical manual on Soil Organic Carbon management. This is part of the implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines for Sustainable Soil Management.

• Development of policy briefs.

• From GSOC17 to GSOC20: reviewing progress.

THANK YOU!