Soils in the European region are not only hosting a huge variety of animals, insects and microorganisms, they have been the guarantee for food security for centuries. The productivity of these soils has been steadily increasing with technical innovation, plant protection and fertilization. However, nowadays, we inherit and still witness the impact of unsustainable practices across the continent, contributing to the erosion of top soils, compaction of subsoils, accumulation of contaminants, loss of nutrients, and other processes causing soils to loose its functions.

More about agriculture, food and ecosystems see here, for the sustainable management of forests, see here.

The objective of the EU Soil Strategy 2030 is to enable healthy soils by 2030. While in general, the technical design and impact of sustainable practices are known, and already applied to many soils in Europe, there is still at least half of the soils where this is currently not applied (statistics of already applied sustainable practices are fairly uncertain).

Even where current practices are already sustainable, negative impact of historic practices may still prevail. On such soils, the recommended measures need to be restorative until soil functions are re-established to the degree ecologically feasible. However, certain soil degradation processes are irreversible, and thus require a long-term regenerative approach to heal.

Following the global voluntary guideline for sustainable soil management as a blue print to promote and mainstream sustainable practices, the local and regional implementing conditions and socio-economic reality call for a regionalization of this global approach (see also here). This can only be achieved through an inclusive stakeholder engagement. The ESP envisions to facilitate such a process, which can already build on a rich knowledge base.

Projects, Instruments and Guidelines for Sustainable Soil Management (SSM) can be viewed here.