From Science to Policy: Harnessing the Biodiversity Beneath Our Feet for a Climate-Resilient Future
March 31, 2025: Healthy soil is the cornerstone of sustainable development, playing a critical role in climate regulation, combating desertification, and supporting biodiversity and ecosystems. Yet, unsustainable land management and climate change are increasing soil degradation and threatening the rich biodiversity beneath our feet.
At the Forum for the Future of Agriculture Conference in Brussels, SOILGUARD partners convened farmers, researchers, advisors, policymakers and interested stakeholders to reflect on the role of soil biodiversity and management in shaping effective policies. The Coalition of Action 4 Soil Health (CA4SH) joined the event and shares the following insights from the discussion, highlighting the urgent need to effectively integrate soil health into policy and practice.
Uncovering Soil’s Potential: Insights from SOILGUARD
Francesc Castro Cirac, project coordinator of SOILGUARD, opened the event with an insightful question: “How can soil shape policies and real-world practices?” SOILGUARD is a 4-year Horizon 2020 project with a transdisciplinary consortium of 25 partners from 17 countries. The project aims to better understand soil biodiversity and its relationship with management, climate change and land degradation. SOILGUARD assesses soil status and the societal and economic impacts of specific land management practices, translating scientific resources into policy recommendations. Dive into the brochure for more information on the project.
Dr. Sofie Héliane (European Commission, DG AGRI) shared updates on policy development, highlighting the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the upcoming European Soil Monitoring Law and the LUCAS soil survey as key policy frameworks and monitoring tools shaping soil health in the EU. She emphasised the importance of indicators that are not only robust and cost-effective but also predictable, regularly collected, and able to meaningfully inform policy cycles. Indicators such as soil organic carbon (SOC) must be locally relevant whilst maintaining methodological consistency. However, challenges like data gaps in long-term data and the slow evolution of SOC pose challenges. “Without attribution, we cannot demonstrate policy delivery”, she noted, underscoring the importance of periodic checkups to guide incentives and shape effective, evidence-based policy development.
Soil Biodiversity: From Evidence to Application
SOILGUARD’s multifaceted approach spans ecological impact assessments, scenario simulations, and the economic valuation of nature’s contributions to people. Dr. Pablo Sanchez Cueto presented the project’s global experimental design, comparing conventional vs organic croplands, monoculture vs mixed species grasslands, and clear-cut vs continuous-cover forestry under different management intensities. Preliminary results show region-specific impacts of soil degradation, calling for tailored policies and management advice.
Martin Hartmann (ETH Zurich) highlighted the legacy effects of land use and climate change stressors such as drought, reiterating that soil biodiversity and multifunctionality are context-specific. “The influence of management and drought is highly site-dependent. Management practices need to be adaptable to local conditions”, he said, noting the limitations of one-size-fits-all recommendations.
Dr. Alexandra Denhardt and Tobias Mollney (Institute for Ecological Economy Research) presented SOILGUARD’s integrated valuation framework, bringing light to the often-overlooked valuation of soil-mediated contributions to people. The framework explores public attitudes, understanding of soil policies, and willingness to pay for soil health improvements - key components in designing inclusive and effective policies.
Towards Harmonised Indicators and Farmer-Centred Systems
Giulia Bongiorno (Wageningen University & Research) outlined three main methods for measuring soil biodiversity - morphological, biochemical, and molecular - and emphasised the importance of harmonising approaches that remain practical and scalable. “We must bridge innovation with gold-standard methods to ensure consistency and reliability”, she said.
A panel of diverse stakeholders, including Tamas Krisztin (Lamasus), Geert Magona van der Meer (ReNature), and Nataliya Zinych (John Deere), underscored the importance of simplicity, trust, and financing in monitoring frameworks. “Farmers need tools that are easy to use and that showcase the benefits of biodiversity in soil”, said Geert Magona van der Meer.
Practical Recommendations and Policy Integration for Sustainable Soil Management
Tassos Haniotis (European Commission) stressed that performance-based indicators must be limited, causal, and long-term. “By improving soil health, we know implicitly that we’re having positive impacts in other areas”, he said, pointing to soil health as the cornerstone for broader environmental and economic outcomes. “Soil matters for the timing and targeting of support measures. But we must reflect reality - there won’t be measurable soil improvements every year”, he said.
Mirco Barbero (European Commission), who led the development of the EU Soil Strategy and Soil Monitoring Law, reiterated the law’s vision of healthy soils by 2050. He called for harmonised indicators and a centralised assessment system to promote data compatibility and knowledge sharing across regions.
Max Meister (NABU) urged for more collaborative work with farmers and local communities. “We need performance-based indicators. Soil health is the most important feedback indicator for terrestrial ecosystems”, he stated. He emphasised context and co-ownership, adding that “Every farmer is the steward of their own farm. We need to take that into account”.
Key Takeaways
1. Soil biodiversity is critical, but still largely invisible in policy
Healthy soils sustain 95% of our food production and are key to climate resilience and clean water. Soil biodiversity is essential to these functions, yet it remains poorly understood and insufficiently reflected in monitoring and decision-making. Speakers echoed the need for approaches that recognise biodiversity below ground, not just above it.
“Soil biodiversity is the invisible infrastructure that sustains life above ground.” - Salvador Llado
2. We need robust, meaningful indicators that connect science to policy
SOILGUARD has developed composite indicators to assess soil biodiversity and ecosystem functions. These indicators are designed to be predictive, sensitive, cost-effective, and policy-relevant, building on both field data and remote sensing technologies. These indicators must be actionable and context-specific.
“We need indicators that speak to farmers, to policymakers, and to scientists at the same time.” - Pablo Sanchez Cueto (CREAF)
3. Co-creation, co-ownership, and community engagement are essential for integrated soil management
A collaborative approach, like SOILGUARD and Mission Soil Living Labs, involves stakeholders from the start to co-develop practical and locally relevant solutions. Farmers need ownership over their data and tools, supported by peer-to-peer learning and shared innovations through tools like SOILGUARD Network of Knowledge and the SOILGUARDIANS app.
“We must integrate soil biodiversity knowledge into real-life decision-making and that means working closely with stakeholders from day one.” - Dr. Sofie Hélaine (European Commission, DG AGRI)
4. Systemic thinking is key to effective policy integration
Soil health intersects across multiple EU policy areas, from the CAP and the European Green Deal to the upcoming Soil Monitoring Law. This reflects the multifunctionality of soil, which cuts across climate, biodiversity, water, food, and land use. Systemic, participatory, and evidence-based approaches - such as those championed by SOILGUARD - are key to aligning efforts across sectors. Strong science-policy-practice links are key to designing effective policies that respond to the realities faced by land managers on the ground.
Global Engagement for Soil Health
The Coalition of Action 4 Soil Health (CA4SH) calls for global commitment to embrace, embrace, adapt, and endorse the critical role of soil health for a healthy planet. Collaborating with initiatives like SOILGUARD, CA4SH builds bridges between science and action to develop robust monitoring systems, fill data gaps, and scale solutions.
CA4SH aims to highlight the role of healthy soil in achieving all 17 of the SDGs through accessible, evidence-based online resources. Healthy soil is home to two-thirds of the World’s biodiversity, and there are more organisms in a tablespoon of healthy soil than there are people on earth. Soil biodiversity is key to sustainable agriculture (SDG12), food security (SDG2), and human well-being (SDG3). It is a biological source for industrial innovation (SDG9) and environmental contaminant degradation (SDG6). Soil degradation involves the loss of biodiversity in the soil where soil is compacted, also leading to increased flooding and drought events (SDG14).
Through capacity-building workshops, strategic partnerships, and policy engagement, CA4SH and SOILGUARD are shaping evidence-based frameworks and equipping stakeholders with the skills to interpret soil health data and apply it across policies, financing mechanisms, and practical implementation at both national and international levels.
Watch the session recording from SOILGUARD
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The knowledge generated in SOILGUARD will continue to inform policy and conservation strategies moving forward. Register now for the online webinar “SOILGUARD Network of knowledge: outcomes and impacts of a collaborative journey taking place on May 9th from 10am to 12:30pm CEST. As SOILGUARD comes to an end, this webinar will help shape the project’s impacts and legacy.
