What is the issue?

Soil biodiversity drives the carbon, nitrogen and water cycles upon which life on earth depends. The productivity of land is therefore determined, to a large extent, by its soil biodiversity. 

When land is degraded, it loses its soil biodiversity. Soil, which takes hundreds of years to form, can be eroded easily by wind and water when soil biodiversity is lost, causing  land to produce less food, store less water and release carbon into the atmosphere. 

About a third of the world's land has already been degraded, with two thirds of this degradation attributed to the agricultural sector, particularly chemical-fuelled, intensive agricultural production. According to the Assessment Report on Land Degradation and Restoration, produced by Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), land degradation is currently undermining the wellbeing of at least 3.2 billion people, and represents an economic loss of 10% of annual global gross product.

By the year 2050, the global population is projected to surpass nine billion people. These people will be wealthier than ever and will demand more agricultural products, placing even greater demands on soils and undermining the long-term productivity of land. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) has estimated that, based on current trajectories, the world only has 60 harvests left. 

Why is it important?

Target 15.3 of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development aims to halt the world’s net land degradation. Healthy soils are both a natural resource and a public good underpinning sustainable development. The targets of the 2030 Agenda for food, water and energy security, biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation all hinge on healthy soils. For instance, research has estimated that restoring only 12% of degraded agricultural land by 2030 could boost smallholders' incomes by USD 35-40 billion per year and help to feed an additional 200 million people annually, while increasing resilience to drought and water scarcity and reducing GHG emissions.

What can be done?

Governments should support land users in adopting sustainable land management practices, for instance through subsidies and other means. Land users should be paid for conserving this public good, rather than purely for the individual foods and other commodities they produce. Governments should also promote private investment in sustainable land management, for instance by facilitating finance opportunities for small and medium agribusinesses that engage in sustainable land management.

The services healthy soils provide should be incorporated into land-use planning. This planning requires input from a number of sectors to ensure the delivery of collective goals, for example food production, water supply and biodiversity conservation.

Governments should also strengthen land tenure and resource rights to enable local communities manage land more sustainably.

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