Purpose

This Policy Position Statement reviews the importance of soils and the threats which they face. CIWEM supports action to protect and enhance soils, and identifies 12 key actions for policy-makers.

CIWEM calls for:

1. A European Framework Directive to protect and enhance soils.
2. Action to improve the knowledge base for making policy decisions about soils.
3. All Government institutions to consider soils in all aspects of their work.
4. Land management organisations to promote good practice in soil management.
5. Soil types of special value and scientific interest to be protected.
6. The criteria for identifying the ‘Best and Most Versatile land’ to be broadened.
7. A risk-based approach to be applied in identifying and tackling threats to soils.
8. Action to improve soil organic matter while protecting soils against contamination.
9. Practical ‘cross-compliance’ measures to protect soils.
10. Incentives to promote beneficial land-use changes.
11. Action to rehabilitate soils which have been contaminated or degraded.
12. Problems to be tackled at source, working through natural processes.

The Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM) is the leading professional body for the people who plan, protect and care for the environment and its resources, providing educational opportunities, independent information to the public and advice to government. Members in 96 countries include scientists, engineers, ecologists and students.

Context

Water, air and soil are natural resources of fundamental importance. Globally, failure to manage soils in a sustainable way affects the ability of millions of people to feed themselves. Many examples of extensive, long-term environmental damage can be found, whether due to erosion by water or wind, contamination by pollutants, or salinisation through inadequate water management. Unsustainable practices are also found in Europe, and within the UK.

The attention paid to soil by policy-makers has to date lagged behind that given to water and air. For example, the European Commission’s Communication ‘Towards a Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection’ dates only from 2002. Now, happily, many UK Government institutions and other organisations are beginning to take a strategic approach to soils policy. CIWEM welcomes these initiatives and offers this PPS as a contribution to this important work.

Key Issues

Soils are important

Soils provide an extensive and impressive range of ‘services’. They:

• Produce food, fibre and bio-fuels: delivering food, timber and energy for human use.
• Store and filter water: absorbing and holding rain, reducing peak flows and flooding.
• Protect the environment: absorbing, buffering and filtering potential pollutants.
• Process organic wastes: converting organic wastes to their basic components.
• Conserve biodiversity: supporting rich species assemblages, and varied surface habitats.
• Preserve cultural features: protecting valuable evidence of past cultures.
• Support construction: providing the physical basis for buildings and roads.
• Provide playing surfaces: healthy soils are critical for outdoor sport and recreation.
• Influence landscapes: combining with the history of land management to create variety.

Policy-makers also need to recognise that soils are:

• Multi-functional: relevant to many diverse policy areas.
• Essentially non-renewable: soils can take decades to recover from mis-management.
• Incredibly diverse: more than 300 major soil types are recognised in Europe alone.
• Locally variable: soils often vary at a field scale, as well as at a farm or landscape scale.
• Privately owned: policies need to be in tune with the rights and responsibilities of owners.

Soils are threatened

The European Commission’s recent ‘Communication’ identifies eight threats to soils in Europe:

• Erosion: Water erosion has been encouraged by agricultural practices (e.g. winter cereal cropping, the use of tramlines for spraying crops, rearing of outdoor pigs). Wind erosion is also a problem on some sandy and peaty soils, and in some moorland areas.
• Decline in organic matter: Soil organic matter is a major carbon pool. It is closely linked to soil biodiversity, and is an indicator of desertification processes. Perhaps 0.5 per cent of soil organic carbon was lost from arable topsoils in the UK between 1980 and 1995.
• Contamination: Acute contamination remains a problem in many industrial areas. Diffuse contamination is widespread, mostly from atmospheric deposition, but also related to land management, including the use of pesticides, manure and inorganic fertilisers.
• Covering and sealing: Soil is lost through the construction of buildings and roads.
• Compaction: Some soils are particularly vulnerable to subsoil compaction by machinery, which reduces infiltration rates. Increased run-off can lead to erosion and flooding.
• Decline in biodiversity: Contamination by air-borne pollutants, and modern agricultural practices, are strong influences on the diversity and richness of soil organisms.
• Salinisation: Fertility is seriously reduced where soluble salts accumulate in soils (e.g. through irrigation, intrusion of sea water in coastal aquifers, or sea-level rise).
• Flooding and landslides: The threats of flooding and landslides are often linked to soil degradation through erosion, compaction and sealing.

Soils are now receiving policy attention

Substantial developments in soils policy at both EU and UK levels are currently expected:

• European Union: Working Groups have been considering ‘Erosion’, the ‘Decline in soil organic matter’, ‘Contamination’, ‘Monitoring’ and ‘Research’. The European Commission is expected to develop a further Communication on Soil in 2005, to include consideration of the use of treated biowaste and sludges on land and proposals to tackle priority threats.
• England: The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has produced its first ‘Soil Action Plan’. This recognises the diversity in soils and their functions. It links the strands of policy and practice being driven by the ‘Strategy for Sustainable Farming and Food’ and the implementation of recent changes to the Common Agricultural Policy.
• Wales: The Welsh Assembly Government has drafted a soil strategy and is considering incorporating this into a wider environment strategy, for public consultation in 2005.
• Scotland: The Executive has commissioned a review of policy responsibilities for soil conservation and protection, as part of an assessment of the need for an over-arching policy. This will be informed by the recent ‘State of the Environment: Soil Quality Report’.
• Northern Ireland: A survey of soil and environment was published in 1997, and a monitoring programme is in hand. There is a commitment to develop a soil strategy.

Discussion

Action is needed to develop both strategic and detailed policies. The needs of soils should be reflected in the policies and actions of all relevant stakeholders, both private and public.

1. CIWEM calls for a European Framework Directive to protect and enhance soils. Current initiatives on soil monitoring, sewage sludge and biowaste are likely to be more successful if tackled as part of a wider integrative framework than if approached piecemeal.
2. CIWEM calls for action to improve the knowledge base for making policy decisions about soils. Comprehensive inventories of soil types and distribution are required. Research is needed into the services provided by soils and into the threats to soils.
3. CIWEM calls for all Government institutions to consider soils in all aspects of their work. All public bodies should assess the implications for soils of any activities which they regulate, and the implications for soils of their own operational activities.
4. CIWEM calls for land management organisations to promote good practice in soil management. Representative bodies are well-placed to encourage land managers to adopt ‘good practice’, whether through audits, assurance schemes or codes.
5. CIWEM calls for soil types of special value and scientific interest to be protected. Rare and threatened soils and their biodiversity merit protection for their own sake, not simply because they support key habitats, or reflect distinct underlying geology.
6. CIWEM calls for the criteria for identifying the ‘Best and Most Versatile land’ to be broadened. The focus on ‘agricultural potential’ means that soils risk being destroyed by development and mineral extraction without full account being taken of wider interests.
7. CIWEM calls for a risk-based approach to be applied in identifying and tackling threats to soils. Soils are multi-functional and very diverse in their nature and distribution. Adopting a risk-based approach will help identify the most serious threats to any specific soils.
8. CIWEM calls for action to improve soil organic matter while protecting soils against contamination. Spreading organic wastes on soils improves soil condition and sequesters organic carbon, but long-term contamination by heavy metals must be avoided.
9. CIWEM calls for practical ‘cross-compliance’ measures to protect soils. For example, withdrawing the margin of cultivation or grazing from the edges of watercourses will help to protect soils from erosion and to maintain soil structure and soil organic matter levels.
10. CIWEM calls for incentives to promote beneficial land-use changes. Agri-environment schemes should promote the conversion of land to uses which raise organic carbon levels, reduce erosion, protect buried archaeology, and buffer adjacent habitats.
11. CIWEM calls for action to rehabilitate soils which have been contaminated or degraded. Actions could include ‘unsealing’ soils lost to past development, restoring agricultural soils to semi-natural habitats, or rehabilitating mineral workings as semi-natural habitats.
12. CIWEM calls for problems to be tackled at source, working through natural processes. For example, changes in land use to reduce sedimentation should go hand-in-hand with dredging to restore ornamental lakes or with action to clear silt from roads.

References

Barron E M 2001. A Review of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution’s Nineteenth Report: Sustainable Use of Soil. See: http://www.rcep.org.uk/soilrev.htm.

Commission of the European Communities 2002. Towards a Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection. COM(2002) 179 final. 16 April 2002. See:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/agriculture/soil_protection.htm

Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution 1996. Sustainable Use of Soil. Nineteenth Report. Cm 3165.

The National Trust 1999. A National Trust Soil Protection Strategy. See: http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/environment/html/env_iss/_fspapers/fs_soil01.htm.

The Royal Society 2001. The role of land carbon sinks in mitigating global climate change. Report of a Royal Society study group. Policy document 10/01. See: www.royalsoc.ac.uk.
May 2004

Note: CIWEM Policy Position Statements (PPS) represents the Institution’s views on issues at a particular point in time. It is accepted that situations change as research provides new evidence. It should be understood, therefore, that CIWEM PPS’s are under constant review, that previously held views may alter and lead to revised PPS’s.