One of the missions of the Global Soil Partnership is to generate and to distribute knowledge about the value and function of soils to all stakeholders, and to advocate for the restoration of soils where they have been unsustainably treated. In Europe, the EU Soil Strategy 2030, while it inspires activities outside the EU as well, strives to raise consumer awareness and addresses expectations by citizens and stakeholders through information about soil health.

The ESP seeks to inspire its partners to support and join efforts in existing and new initiatives on awareness raising. It also prolongs the valuable efforts by the GSP Secretariate into the European region. The elongation of effort finds it current success in national partnerships, such as in Slovenia, Slovakia, Ukraine, Portugal and Italy. The ESP is prepared to spread information about activities by its partners, to a greater audience. To post important vents, and inform about relevant projects, please write to the secretariat.

Networks that promote awareness raising and advocacy on soil health include the European Network on Soil Awareness (ENSA), the European Land and Soil Alliance (ELSA), as well as outreach activities by many European partner organizations. There are a number of exciting documents and media on country level that make the topic of soil and soil protection more understandable and accessible for a wide variety of target groups: be it for teaching in highschool, university, for decision-makers, experts from other disciplines or the interested public. Some of these examples are listed here:

• Alpine Subregional partnership: teaching materials, infographics, factsheets and further material for soil awareness raising (English)
• BGR: factsheets and learning materials (German)
• Soilcast: a podcast on soils (German)
• Soil and Land Stewardship: Visualization of future developments and poster scenarios (English, Dutch)

Further projects within the EU Soil Mission “A Deal for Europe” contribute to the awareness raising and advocacy on soil health (this is a selection, see more research programs and information here, or have a look at the EU Soil Mission website):

HuMUS (Healthy Municipal Soils): Engages and activates municipalities and regions to protect and restore soil health with a view to local solutions. The improvement of soil literacy in society and the facilitation or regional and local actions, including the involvement of stakeholders and citizens are at the center of this project.

LOESS (Literacy boost through an Operational Educational Ecosystem of Societal actors on Soil health): By increasing soil literacy through educational events, programs and skill developing activities, the LOESS program is contributing to the EU-Mission “A Soil Deal for Europe”. LOESS searches for knowledge gaps that need to be filled and addresses regional and local challenges in 15 countries.

PREPSOIL (Preparing for the “Soil Deal for Europe” Mission): Through co-creation, interaction, communication and knowledge-sharing, the deployment of the Mission through European regions is facilitated and strengthened. This project supports the European Mission during the years 2022 – 2025 and aims at tackling one of the major drivers across the whole of society of soil degradation: lack of knowledge and awareness.

NBSoil (Nature-based Solutions for Soil Management): This four-year project is working towards creating a learning pathway for existing and aspiring soil advisors. Including the creation of a learning program for the training of new soil advisors, NBSoil provides tools for the implementation of soil health through nature-based solutions. The project focuses on organic fertilizers from local biowaste, cover crops, paludiculture, forest diversification, bioremediation, blue and green infrastructure as nature-based solutions.