Rules beneath our feet

International Level — Global Frameworks

At the international level, soil governance is shaped by a set of global environmental agreements and institutional frameworks. Unlike climate change or biodiversity, however, there is no single binding international convention specifically dedicated to soil protection. Instead, soils appear indirectly within broader environmental agreements such as:

• The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)
• The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)
• The Paris Agreement under the UNFCCC

In these frameworks, soil protection is usually addressed as part of broader environmental objectives — combating desertification, protecting biodiversity, mitigating climate change — rather than through a dedicated soil-specific legal instrument.

International initiatives such as the FAO Global Soil Partnership complement these agreements by promoting cooperation, scientific exchange, and policy guidance on sustainable soil management. Together, these efforts recognise soil degradation, land degradation neutrality, carbon storage, and biodiversity protection as issues of global concern. However, their implementation largely depends on actions taken by individual states.

This highlights an important feature of soil governance: global recognition does not automatically translate into binding global regulation. International agreements tend to establish common goals, principles, and knowledge frameworks, leaving the responsibility for concrete measures to national governments.