A model legislation for sustainable soil management in Africa | Umweltbundesamt

Professor Dr. Oliver C. Ruppel (Stellenbosch University) and Dr. Harald Ginzky (UBA) co-led the project which started in November 2018 and ended in April 2020 and which was funded by the “Deutsche Gesellschaft für internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH” (GIZ).

The project results were mainly based on the analysis of three country reports for Cameroon, Kenya and Zambia (lead authors: Prof. Dr. Christopher Tamasang, Prof. Patricia Kameri-Mbote and Dr. Pamela Towela Sambo) as well as on the insights and recommendations gathered at several stakeholder events in various African states.

The main results of the project inter alia include the following:

• No coherent soil policy and/or legislation in the three countries;
• Soils need to be acknowledged as natural resource;
• A legal objective should be included that the social and ecological services of soils need to be maintained and enhanced;
• Clarity on tenure rights is of eminent importance;
• Acquisition of foreigners in land and soil need to be effectively controlled;
• Local chiefs should be informed about the importance of soils and better involved in the management and control;
• The roles and responsibilities of the various ministries and authorities must be clearly attributed.

The results have been published in the book “African Soil Protection Law” by Nomos Law Publishers, which is publicly available. For further information, please click here.

The Pan African Parliament has supported the project from the beginning. In October 2019, the Pan African Parliament, the University of Stellenbosch and the German Environment Agency adopted a Memorandum of Understanding to collaborate in order to foster the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals in Africa.

The initial project results were presented at the meeting of the “Alliance on the sustainable development goals” of the Pan African Parliament in March 2020. For the press release, please click here.

In May 2021, the “Alliance” has decided to work out a model law on sustainable soil management which are to be recommended to all (more than 50) member states of the African Union. UBA and the University of Stellenbosch were kindly requested to coordinate and advise the development of such a model law. The endorsement of the PAP plenum is still pending.