Abstract
AbstractSoil degradation is a critical and growing global problem. As the world population increases, pressure on soil also increases and the natural capital of soil faces continuing decline. International policy makers have recognized this and a range of initiatives to address it have emerged over recent years. However, a gap remains between what the science tells us about soil and its role in underpinning ecological and human sustainable development, and existing policy instruments for sustainable development. Functioning soil is necessary for ecosystem service delivery, climate change abatement, food and fiber production and fresh water storage. Yet key policy instruments and initiatives for sustainable development have under‐recognized the role of soil in addressing major challenges including food and water security, biodiversity loss, climate change and energy sustainability. Soil science has not been sufficiently translated to policy for sustainable development. Two underlying reasons for this are explored and the new concept of soil security is proposed to bridge the science–policy divide. Soil security is explored as a conceptual framework that could be used as the basis for a soil policy framework with soil carbon as an exemplar indicator.
Highlights
Soil security is a new concept that has arisen during a time of emerging international response to the increasingly urgent problems that face the global soil stock
Soils contain over 98 per cent of the genetic diversity in terrestrial ecosystems (Fierer et al, 2007) soil biodiversity is not addressed in the Global Biodiversity Outlook (GBO-3) from the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (Secretariat of the CBD, 2010), and is not referred to in the popular International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species (UCN, 2012)
There are many contributors to the identified disconnect existing between science and international policy, but in this article we address two
Summary
The world faces a modern soil crisis that eclipses those of the past. Soil degradation – the decline in soil function or its capacity to provide economic goods and ecosystem services (Lal, 2010) – is a global phenomenon with many faces. Other problems stem from not recognizing soil as a vital resource Practices such as the use of topsoil to produce bricks and other building materials, and the paving over of high-quality agricultural soils for urban development, sometimes referred to as ‘soil sealing’ (Burghardt, 2006), contribute significantly to the loss of global soil productivity. Land degradation is estimated to affect 23.5 per cent of global land area (Bai et al, 2008) and has resulted in 1–2.3 million hectares of agricultural land becoming unsuitable for cultivation (Lambin and Meyfroidt, 2011). Much of this degraded area faces increasing pressure from development as a result of increasing population (Barbier, 2010). The natural capital of soil has been greatly undervalued (Dominati et al, 2010; Robinson et al, 2009) and the importance of halting and reversing the degradation and loss remains unacknowledged
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