Healthy soils are vital to life, providing the foundation for biodiversity and food supply. ICLEI Europe has released a new Position Paper that responds to the European Commisson's EU Soil Strategy for 2030, providing key recommendations for policy-makers. The paper draws on linkages elaborated in a prior ICLEI briefing sheet, and on ICLEI’s soil-related work, for example in numerous nature-based solutions projects and through its advisory function in the Soil Mission Support project.

Addressing soil degradation is a matter of urgency. It is necessary to tackle multiple environmental emergencies, such as the climate and biodiversity crises. After all, the top 30cm of all soils contain nearly twice as much carbon as is found in the whole of the atmosphere. Furthermore, this topic is of particular relevance to cities: according to the World Economic Forum, development of urban areas is a key cause of land degradation.

Reaching the EU’s goals on land and soils will not be achievable without the strong involvement and support of local and regional governments. If we are serious about reaching the vision of all of the EU’s soil ecosystems being healthy, biodiversity-positive, pollution-free, and resilient by 2030, local and regional governments need to play a major and integrated role in soil policies and actions.

To this end, the ICLEI position paper lays out a number of key recommendations that would harness the potential of cities to save soils:

• Apply a whole-of-government approach that includes local and subnational governments in relevant policies and programmes. This includes operationalising goals, targets and indicators for on-the-ground implementation that are integrated across governance levels, sectors and land-use types.
• Make use of policy levers like collaboration platforms, financing support schemes, public procurement, and planning strategies including: compact city planning, sustainable land management, landscape-level approaches, and rural-urban partnerships.
• Use nature-based solutions and a circular economy approach to tackle multiple urban issues simultaneously. These solutions can address biodiversity loss, urban soil quality, organic waste management, flooding, and land degradation.
• Mobilise adequate technical and financial resources for local governments to unleash their full potential in the preservation and restoration of soils, including clear and easy to access funding streams dedicated to the protection and restoration of soils in urban areas.
• Eliminate perverse incentives by decoupling revenue generation from soil sealing and land degradation through national or regional schemes of soil budgeting, compensation and payment for ecosystem services.
• Establish effective incentive programmes for the densification of existing urban areas without the net-loss of urban green and blue infrastructure to reconcile trade-offs between soil preservation and the provision of affordable housing.

Integrating these recommendations would not only benefit land and soils, but would also give cities and municipalities a stronger voice in shaping soil policies on the national- and EU-levels. A more coherent and integrated soil policy would also help cities to better address the escalating struggle for urban land, while providing further resources to protect urban biodiversity.

Read the Position Paper in full to learn more about the role of local governance and cities in curbing land degradation and restoring Europe’s soils.