Soils play a key role in climate regulation, nutritious diets, agricultural livelihoods, and biodiversity; they have however dropped down the EU policy agenda, despite their importance for society and nature. There are many opportunities for policy to safeguard the future of Europe’s soils and play its part in reversing global trends in soil degradation, as pointed out by European Academies’ Science Advisory Council (EASAC).  

Debate on soil management across the EU reached a hiatus after the European Commission withdrew proposals for a Soils Directive in 2014. In contrast, international attention to soils has been growing, following 2015’s International Year of Soils and subsequent initiatives including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Moreover, many business supply chains and the circular economy depend on soils and their ecosystem services, so the current global trend of soil degradation across 12 million hectares each year threatens future supplies of food and resources, as well as human well-being. In view of this divergence in trends within and outside the EU, EASAC conducted a study on Europe’s soils and their sustainability to see if they really should be off the policy agenda.

In a new report, “Opportunities for soil sustainability in Europe”, launched on 26th September 2018, Prof. Michael Norton, Director of Environment at EASAC and Prof. Wim der Putten of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences on the behalf of EASAC presented the latest synthesis revealing that policy-makers need to grasp opportunities to safeguard Europe’s soils and ensure their sustainability. Top-line issues highlighted by EASAC include climate change, deforestation and the permanent loss of soils, biodiversity, biofuels, health, and the Common Agricultural Policy. 

 

 2018 10 Research ea sac

Figure 1. Prof. Michael Norton, Director of Environment at EASAC (on the right) and Prof. Wim der Putten of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (on the left).

The full report is available here