How do we develop indicators of healthy soil? Science-based policy development from a policymaker’s perspective
Elena Havlicek
Policymaker, Federal Office for the Environment FOEN, Soil and Biotechnology Division, Switzerland
Fig 1. Adoption of Sustainable Soil Management (SSM): a multilevel process from problem to implementation. (From Erdogan et al., 2021).
Recently, Global Soil Biodiversity Initiative (GSBI) has launched an important call to the Executive Secretary of the UN Convention of Biological Diversity on the need to protect soil biodiversity, urging governments to develop policies and legal mechanisms, and stated that education and awareness are decisive to take necessary actions for protect and restore soil resources. Indeed, the transfer of appropriate and comprehensible information between different stakeholders constitutes a major challenge for awareness raising, but also for policies development. Each stakeholder, whether scientist, citizen, farmer or policymaker, has their own language and understanding of the problems and priorities. That is why messages addressed to each of them require a different approach, focus, and emphasis.
Even though some countries have put in place national soil policies (see e.g. Peake and Robb 2022), so far, few countries have regulations or legal mechanisms that specifically protect soil biodiversity or include soil organisms in biodiversity targets. How can we reverse this situation and develop effective governance of soil (biodiversity) resources? How can we establish effective policies and regulations for soil biodiversity protection? Policymakers, members of governmental departments and/or national agencies, are typically responsible for designing new policies and laws, or involved in developing plans of action that will ensure soil governance mechanisms and enable the implementation of sustainable soil management practices (Fig. 1, Erdogan et al. 2021). To do this, they need for accurate data to be translated into indicators or thresholds that will be used to define desirable objectives or critical levels. In addition, they also need to know about the (human and financial) resources that will be required for implementation. Therefore, scientists with ability and willingness to translate often-complex science-based data to commonly understandable advice, messages and indicators are an essential link in the transfer of information and, ultimately, the soil (biodiversity) protection.
An example from Switzerland may provide some guidance. For more than 20 years, a working group specifically dedicated to soil biodiversity has brought together representatives of federal and cantonal administrations and research institutions. This allows for a direct exchange of information between scientists and policymakers regarding the needs of policymakers and the results that scientists can provide. Thus, over the years, several applied research projects have been co-designed and carried out, and the results have met the concrete needs of policymakers. Recently, this working group has been involved in the ongoing process of revising the Swiss law on soil protection with the objective of including the protection of soil organisms and, ultimately, to set soil biodiversity reference values for different land uses.
New molecular biological methods now offer opportunities to capture the “big picture” of the soil biodiversity and its functions even as most of the organisms are invisible to the naked eye. More than ever, the ability to transfer this new and complex knowledge into a common language and easy-to-understand indicators of soil quality will help develop global policies and national legal mechanisms, and support local implementation of sustainable practices that foster and protect soil biodiversity.
References:
Erdogan et al. (2021). Soil conservation and sustainable development goals (SDGs) achievement in Europe and central Asia: Which role for the European soil partnership? International Soil and Water Conservation Research, 9(3), 360-369. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iswcr.2021.02.003
Peake, L. R., & Robb, C. (2022). The global standard bearers of soil governance. Soil Security, 6, 100055. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soisec.2022.100055