Report on theRegional Soil Partnership

Ms Elena Havlicek EUROPE

Introduction• ESP launch: 31.10.2013 (Berlin – Global Soil Week)• ESP governance Partners :- about 90 European organizations- 32 national FPSteering committee- 1 chair and 2 vice-chairs (Switzerland, Turkey, Italy), EASP secretariat

(Russian Federation)- Secretariat (JRC)- 5 Working Groups- 1 ITPS member, GSP secretariat

Achievements since last 3rd Plenary Assembly 2015Consolidation of the ESP (ToR, new SC, renewal of WG) Meetings• Steering Committee meeting (December 2015) • ESP Plenary Assembly (March 2016)• Workshop INSII (December 2015) Activities• Draft ESP Implementation Plan • IYS 2015 (more than 400 national activities, ENSA event at

ExpoMilano)• VGSSM (national contributions)

Pillar 1• Sustainable soil management practices and systems

(urban, forest, agriculture)• Identification of SSM adapted to European context• Establishment of networks > practitioners, advisors, etc.

• Inventory of European contaminated sites• Revision of the indicator “Progress in the management of

contaminated sites in Europe”• EC, EEA, EIONET, Common Forum

• Support the development of SDG indicators/targets• Implementation of the SDGs in Europe• JRC, IASS, etc.

Pillar 2• Development of communication strategies and tools• Soil Atlas (Soil Atlas of Europe, Soil Biodiversity)• Events (e.g. EUROSOIL 2016, 2020)

• Support to EU and national soil policies development• Policy briefings (e.g. JRC Technical Reports)

• Science-policy interface• Event on the follow-up and review of the SDGs (Global Soil

Week 2017)

Pillar 3• Build on current (applied) research activities• Gain an overview and identify gaps/needs• Promote interdisciplinary research

• Implementation plan for research in joint collaboration• tbd (University of Wageningen NL, JRC, partners from

Turkey > next EUROSOIL conference 2016)

Pillar 4• Develop a comprehensive soil profile and analytical

database• Collate existing datasets (Europe is data rich)• Build a network of data providers (e.g. intellectual Property

Rights)

• Revise and update the digital Soil Map of the World with the design scale 1:1M from national soil polygon data sets and SOTER maps • eSOTER approach is being used in Danube basin and could

be rolled out to rest of ESP region

Pillar 5• Implementation plan to be provided by GSP• Harmonization principles for the European partners

Future planning Short term (2016/2017): functional ESP• Finalization of the RIP • Cooperation with existing soil networks • Promotion of the ESP Long (middle) term (2017/2020): deliverables• Report on SSM best practices• EUROSOIL 2020: promote synergies policy-science• SWSR 2020: European Regional Report

Concluding remarks• Summary of main achievements and challenges we are on track… main challenge: coordination existing networks, existing knowledge !!• Suggestions to progress with the implementation using VGSSM for European context (adaptation of

RIP) seeking inspiration from other RSPs