Conservation and Sustainable Use of Soil and Its Stand in International Environmental Law

The soil is an earth's limited natural resource and considered as the most important part of environment after water and air.
The special roles of soil in climate change, land degradation, food security and ecosystems are respectively subjects to UN Convention on Climate Change, UN Convention on Combating Desertification and the Convention on Biological Diversity as binding sources of international environmental law.
In order to study present or future opportunities and challenges in the field of soil conservation in international environmental law, and to explore required principles for elaborating an effective special legal system for sustainable use of soil, in this paper has been compared and analyzed binding/non-binding treaties related to natural resources conservation in global or regional levels.
Implemented studies within international environmental law instruments show that different approaches adopted on soil conservation and lack of integrity in its` required actions, have caused non-efficiency of the present instruments to preserve and sustainable use of soil with regards to all specific characteristics and functions. Therefore, establishing a comprehensive and special international legal system for conservation, management and sustainable use of soil seems to be necessary.