The iSQAPER toolkit: research conclusions for policy makers
| Main authors: | Thorfinn Stainforth, Catherine Bowyer, Luuk Fleskens, Jane Brandt |
| iSQAPERiS editor: | Jane Brandt |
| Source document: | Stainforth et al. (2020) Integrated soil quality assessment - good quality soils support environmental protection, climate action and rural development: the iSQAPER Toolkit - H2020 Research conclusions for policy makers. iSQAPER Project Deliverable 8.4, 18 pp |
iSQAPER has developed a toolkit that can be used to help policy makers, researchers and land managers to better monitor and assess soils at local, regional and continental scales, for better decision making and improved soil quality. These tools should be incorporated in the European Green Deal policy architecture in order to better account for the crucial role soil quality.
- High quality, healthy soils can perform many production, ecosystem and climate regulation functions. The quality of agricultural soils in particular is decreasing and is of concern at international level. Better understanding soil quality, its protection and improvement can support a transition to a resilient and sustainable rural economy.
- The heterogeneity of soil types, climate zones and farming systems means that soil quality assessment and management needs to target location-specific soil functions or soil threats. Effective soil assessment needs to take account of both environmental conditions and land management techniques, and data needs to be collected and collated to better enable this.
- Soil quality is multifaceted. Assessments of soil condition and policy tools to promote improvement must reflect this. Policy goals should focus on balancing the soil’s functions, and not single out one function alone.
- Policies need to be developed that promote soil quality as an integral part of agriculture’s economic and environmental resilience. Within the EU the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is central to the ability to address soil quality questions. While actions under the CAP are important in their own right, the CAP is also key to operationalising other policy goals highly relevant to soil quality delivery including biodiversity, climate regulation and water protection.
Soil quality is multi-faceted, it cannot be achieved by the delivery of a single parameter or single goal. This is important to consider in the context of future policy action on soils, in order not to focus on the opportunities through a single lens i.e. maximising their carbon storage for climate, while failing to focus on their broader water quality, climate adaptation and biodiversity roles or ignoring their importance in biomass production or cost-effectiveness considerations.
»Quality soils - supporting the transition to a resilient and sustainable economy
Results from long-term experiments as well as farm surveys completed under iSQAPER have identified that key management practices or land management combinations reviewed have a predominantly positive impact on soil quality. However, recognising these interventions and implementing them coherently across arable land would represent significant steps towards supporting improved soil quality.
»Developing policies that promote soil quality and agricultural resilience
iSQAPER has developed a toolkit that can be used to help policy makers, researchers and land managers to better monitor and assess soils at local, regional and continental scales, for better decision making and improved soil quality. These tools should be incorporated in the European Green Deal policy architecture in order to better account for the crucial role soil quality.
»The iSQAPER toolkit – a new interconnected approach to soil quality assessment