The Latest Developments on the Implementation of the Soil Thematic Strategy of the European Commission
L. Marmo1
Introduction
On 22 September 2006 the Commission adopted the Soil Thematic Strategy2 comprising a proposal for a Soil Framework Directive3. The overall objective of the Strategy is the protection and sustainable use of soil, by preventing further soil degradation and preserving its functions, and by restoring degraded soils taking into account land use.
The adoption of Strategy was at the same time the completion of a long journey started in 1998 and the beginning of a new one in which solid foundations were laid to ensure that role of soil in the economy and ecosystem in properly recognised and protected.
At the behest of the German Environment Ministry, a workshop on soil protection policies across Europe was held in Bonn in 1998. At that workshop, a European Soil Forum was formed with its first meeting the following year in Berlin and a second two years later in Naples. The Commission felt in 2002 that the time was right, with sufficient background knowledge built up, to raise the issue through the presentation of a Communication4 setting out first reflections on soil and outlining a thematic approach to protection as had been recently heralded in the Sixth Environment Action Programme5. Both the Council6 and the European Parliament7 endorsed the approach proposed and invited the Commission to pursue the work with a view to presenting a fully fledged Thematic Strategy. This led to a series of publications8 dealing with
1 Legal notice: Opinions expressed are personal to the author.
2 COM(2006) 231. More information on soil policy at EU level and the texts of the Strategy as well as the proposed Soil framework Directive are at http://ec.europa.eu/environment/soil/index_en.htm.
3 COM(2006) 232.
4 COM(2002) 179.
5 Decision No 1600/2002/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 July 2002 laying down the Sixth Community Environment Action Programme (OJ L 242, 10.9.2002, p. 1–15).
6 Council conclusions on integrated soil protection (Document 10800/02, 18.7.2002).
7 European Parliament resolution on the Commission communication 'Towards a Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection' (P5_TA(2003)0507, 19.11.2003).
8 http://ec.europa.eu/environment/soil/making_en.htm.
different aspects of soil degradation, presenting a solid basis of evidence and experience to provide a path forwards. The involvement of more than 400 scientists, farmers, planners and administrators over this period provided the background and foundation for the Soil Thematic Strategy that the Commission eventually adopted in 2006.
The role of soil as a key resource9
Soil is a vital natural resource that regulates our environment and responds to a range of pressures imposed upon it. It is a critical component of a diverse set of eco-processes from water management, terrestrial carbon fluxes, and land-based natural greenhouse gas production to nutrient cycles. Thus, human well being and our economy depend on a multitude of soil functions. Soil is the medium that enables us to grow food for people or animals, natural fibre, and timber, and supports wildlife. Around 99 % of global food supplies (calories) for human consumption come from land-based food production. It is a natural filter that neutralises certain pollutants by transforming them or accumulating and absorbing their toxicity. In addition, soils are a major factor in purifying water supplies and are a critical component for regulating flooding through the storage of rainfall. It is also the biological engine where dead plant and animal tissues, and other organic wastes, are decomposed to provide nutrients that sustain life. Soil is alive:
decomposition processes are driven by a mass of soil microorganisms.
This biota is involved in most of the key functions of soil, driving fundamental nutrient cycling processes, regulating plant communities, degrading pollutants and helping to stabilise soil structure. Soil organisms also represent a crucially important biotechnological resource, providing sources of antibiotics and other medicines. Finally, soil plays a crucial role in regulating a number of life-sustaining natural biological and chemical cycles (ecosystem services). Carbon, nitrogen and a range of essential nutrients are continuously recycled between the soil and plants, geological deposits, ground water and the atmosphere.
Soil degradation in the EU
In its recent report The European environment – state and outlook (SOER) 201010, the European Environment Agency (EEA) and the Joint
9 Excerpts from the Soil Chapter of the Status of the Environment Report (SOER) 2010 of the European Environment Agency (http://www.eea.europa.eu/soer/europe/soil).
Research Centre (JRC) of the Commission note that very few Member States have soil monitoring schemes in place allowing a quantified evaluation of soil conditions changes in time. Consequently, pan- European assessments are rare. Nevertheless they remark that the character of the major threats to soil have not changed significantly since the previous assessment carried out in 2005:
Some recent studies in Belgium, France, Sweden and the United Kingdom seem to suggest that soil organic carbon in European agricultural land is decreasing. Soil organic carbon decline is also of particular concern in the Mediterranean region where high temperatures and droughts could accelerate the decomposition of soil organic matter.
Soil erosion by water is one of the most widespread forms of soil degradation in Europe affecting 16% of Europe's total land area (excluding the Russian Federation). Wind erosion is a serious problem in many parts of northern Germany, eastern Netherlands, eastern England and the Iberian Peninsula. Estimates of the extent of wind erosion range from 10 to 42 million ha of Europe's total land area, with around one million hectare being categorised as severely affected. In some parts of the Mediterranean region, erosion has reached a state of irreversibility and in some places it has practically ceased because there is no soil left. Soil erosion in northern Europe is less pronounced because of the reduced erosivity of the rain and higher vegetation cover. However, arable land in northern Europe is also affected, especially loamy soils after ploughing.
In the EU27 136 million hectares of lands are fertilised. The surplus of the applied nutrients, in particular nitrogen and phosphorous, that is not absorbed by the plants roots is transferred via wind and water erosion to water bodies, which can result in the eutrophication of the water and the formation of toxic algal blooms. According to the SOER 2010, more than 40% of sensitive terrestrial and freshwater ecosystem areas in EU are still subject to atmospheric nitrogen deposition beyond their critical loads. Agricultural nitrogen loads are expected to remain high as nitrogen fertiliser use in the EU is projected to increase by around 4% by 2020.
Soil compaction is truly a hidden problem. It leads to the reduction of available habitats for soil organisms. It also impacts on the activity of soil organisms as it reduces aeration. For instance, oxygen limitation can
10http://www.eea.europa.eu/soer.
modify microbial activity, favouring microbes that can withstand anaerobic conditions. This alters the types and distribution of all organisms found in the rest of the soil food web. It destroys the absorptive capacity of the soil reducing infiltration and increasing surface runoff, leading eventually to flooding, erosion and transport of nutrients and agrochemicals to open water. According to the SOER 2010, 28% of European soils have high risks of compaction and 9% have very high risks of compaction. Central and Eastern European soils are particularly affected. In recent years, arable farming machinery has improved and tyre inflation pressures have been lowered to minimize compaction, but overall the problem remains.
While naturally saline soils exist in certain parts of Europe, the main concern of salinisation is the increase in salt content in the soils resulting from human interventions such as inappropriate irrigation practices, use of salt-rich irrigation water and/or poor drainage conditions.
Indeed, the irrigation modifies the water cycle in the soil as it makes more water available to soil. This additional water, even if it is of high quality, includes minerals and salt which are gradually accumulated in the soil.
The continuing expansion of irrigation with related water scarcity problems plus the increasing use of groundwater of marginal quality accelerate the salinisation process. As a consequence, the crop yield is reduced. Prolonged salinisation might induce to the alcanisation of soil with very negative impact for agriculture.
Acidification describes the loss of base cations (e.g. calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium) through leaching and replacement by acidic elements, mainly soluble aluminium and iron complexes.
Acidification is always accompanied by a decrease in the capacity of a soil to neutralise acid, a process which is naturally irreversible when compared to human lifespans. In addition, the geochemical reaction rates of buffering substances in the soil are a crucial factor determining how much of the acidifying compounds are neutralized over a certain period.
While a number of studies have produced reports of soil pH across Europe, the systematic monitoring of soil acidification across Europe is generally lacking for non-forested soils.
There are no data on the total area affected by landslides in Europe. The main landslide-prone regions include mountain ranges, hilly areas on landslide-sensitive geological formation, coastal cliffs and steep slopes. While changes in land use, land cover and climate (higher and
more intense rainfall patterns) will have an impact on landslides, there are no pan-European data on trends in landslide distribution and impact.
Little is known about how soil life reacts to human activities but there is evidence that soil biodiversity is affected by soil organic matter content, the chemical characteristics of soils and the physical properties of soils such as porosity and bulk density, both of which are affected by compaction or sealing. According to the European Soil Biodiversity Atlas11, soil biodiversity levels are potentially under high pressure in approximately 23% of the surface area of EU-25 (excluding Sweden and Finland) and under very high pressure in 8% on this area due to land use change, habitat disruption, invasive species, soil compaction, erosion, pollution and organic matter decline.
In southern, central and eastern Europe 8% of the territory currently shows very high or high sensitivity to desertification, corresponding to about 14 million ha, and more than 40 million ha if moderate sensitivities are included. Within the EU, the following Member States consider themselves affected by desertification and are included in Annex V to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNNCCD):
Cyprus, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Malta, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain.
Soil sealing affects around 4% of agricultural or other non- developed land in the EU. This normally includes the removal of top soil layers and leads to the loss of important soil functions, such as food production or water storage. Analysis carried out by the JRC showed that during 1990–2000, the sealed area in the EU-15 increased by 6%, and productive soil continues to be lost to urban sprawl and transport infrastructures.
It is difficult to quantify the real extent of local soil contamination as the vast majority of Member States lack comprehensive inventories.
Past estimates done by the European Environment Agency on the basis of 2005-2006 data show that the number of sites in Europe where potentially polluting activities are occurring, or have taken place in the past, stands at about three million.
11 http://eusoils.jrc.ec.europa.eu/library/maps/biodiversity_atlas/index.html.
The situation in selected Member States
The SOER 2010 also presents country profiles with information on key environmental pressures and assessments of common environmental themes at the national level. They show that soil degradation is still continuing:
In the Czech Republic, land use trends since 2000 show a slow decline in arable land area, which has been replaced by built-up or otherwise transformed areas. The key driving forces of this tendency have been the urbanisation process (particularly suburbanisation and urban sprawl) and the construction of transport infrastructure12.
In France, the persistent decline in pastures, although slowing, has consequences on the carbon balance, since they constitute a carbon sink.
Turning pastures over to crops also has effects on the status of the water, through diffuse pollution which also increasingly affects groundwater over the course of time and soil erosion, increasing turbidity, silting up of substrates, etc. Soil sealing associated with many forms of artificial surfacing contributes to disruption of the water regime and, in particular, to an increase in the risks of flooding: the increase in runoff resulting from sealing causes a further rise in water levels, and flooding occurs more quickly after rainfall. Water quality is also affected. The human and economic damage caused by the floods in the first half of 2010 has to be seen in connection with continued building in risk areas13.
In Germany, the settlement and traffic area grew by 104 ha/day from 2005 to 2008. This was slower than from 2004 to 2007, when growth was running at 113 ha/day. Germany has set itself the target of achieving a reduction to 30 ha/day in the increase in the take-up of land by 2020. This growth was achieved largely at the expense of areas used for agricultural purposes removing large areas from natural cycles and fragmenting the habitats of larger species. The decline is mainly due to a drop in investment in the construction sector caused by economic conditions. A real reversal in the trend cannot therefore be guaranteed – an increase may be expected in the event of economic recovery14.
12 SOER 2010, Country report: Czech Republic, Land use
(http://www.eea.europa.eu/soer/countries/cz/soertopic_view?topic=land).
13 SOER 2010, Country report: France, Land use
(http://www.eea.europa.eu/soer/countries/fr/soertopic_view?topic=land).
14 SOER 2010, Country report: Germany, Land use
http://www.eea.europa.eu/soer/countries/de/soertopic_view?topic=land).
In Italy, severe soil degradation processes are occurring in many areas due to inappropriate management, sometimes even in an irreversible way. These processes result from growing demands from various economic sectors and from population growth, the impacts of climate change and changes in use. The evolution of the most important dynamics of land cover and land use on national territory, between 1990 and 2006, highlights a progressive increase in artificial areas to the detriment of cropland and, after 2000, of forestland and semi-natural environments15.
In the Netherlands, the standards for heavy metals are being exceeded in large parts of the country, mainly resulting from historic emissions from zinc melting furnaces in the south-west, and the past application of urban compost in peat areas in the west. Exceeding copper standards mainly originates from application of chemical fertilisers and manure. Due to legislation copper and zinc concentrations in these substances have reduced significantly since 200016.
In Spain, water consumption and use of fertilisers and pesticides are causes of pressure on the environment. In 2008, irrigated land accounted for 13.7 % of utilised agricultural area and the amount of organic farmland stood at 1,317,750 ha. The average fertiliser consumption was 92.4 kg/ha and pesticide product consumption reached 2.81 kg/ha of active ingredient17.
In the United Kingdom, around 2.2 million tonnes of topsoil is eroded annually, significantly affecting the productivity of soils and impacting on water quality and aquatic ecosystems through the silting up of watercourses. The total cost of soil erosion is currently estimated at around £45 (€53) million per annum including £9 (€10.5) million in lost production18; soil samples taken from 6,000 sites across England and Wales, first around 1980 and then again in the mid-1990s, point to a significant loss of carbon in arable soils19; the cost of organic matter
15 SOER 2010, Country report: Italy, Land use
(http://www.eea.europa.eu/soer/countries/it/soertopic_view?topic=land).
16 SOER 2010, Country report: the Netherlands, Land use
(http://www.eea.europa.eu/soer/countries/nl/soertopic_view?topic=land).
17 SOER 2010, Country report: Spain, Nature protection and biodiversity (http://www.eea.europa.eu/soer/countries/es/soertopic_view?topic=biodiversity).
18 Safeguarding our Soils. A Strategy for England, DEFRA, 2009
(http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/quality/land/soil/documents/soil-strategy.pdf), p. 11.
19 Landscape, DEFRA, March 2008, p. 13.
decline due to cultivation is estimated to be about £82 (€96) million per annum20.
The four pillars of the Soil Thematic Strategy
Set against a past and a present of soil degradation, the Commission in the Strategy identified four broad areas on which it proposed to work: awareness raising, research, integration and legislation.
Awareness raising
The importance of soil and its fundamental role for the economy and in the ecosystem is not generally known or appreciated by the general public. Soil is normally perceived as dirt, inert and not really of the same importance as air, water or nature. There are no visible dramatic events like the pollution of the Danube by cyanide a few years ago or the beaching of disoriented whales on our costs which remind everyone of us of the importance of water and biodiversity. Soil degradation is largely invisible, because slow and often having effect far from its origin.
Awareness raising on soil therefore requires a different approach to that for water and even biodiversity. It needs a strong educational aspect linked in many ways to research.
The Commission has organised several public events dedicated to soil, including side events at the 9th and 10th Conferences of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (May 2008 and October 2010), major conferences on soil and climate change (June 2008) and soil and biodiversity (September 2010)21, and talks at Green Week22, an annual event organised by the Environment Directorate-General. Information materials (leaflets, brochures)23, available in a number of EU languages, have also been on request freely distributed on the occasion of conferences, workshops and meetings. The Soil Atlases series24, started in
20 'Safeguarding our Soils. A Strategy for England', DEFRA, 2009
(http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/quality/land/soil/documents/soil-strategy.pdf), p. 11.
21http://ec.europa.eu/environment/soil/conf_en.htm;
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/soil/biodiversity_conference.htm.
22 Soil sealing in 2008, soil and climate change in 2009, soil biodiversity in 2010.
23http://ec.europa.eu/environment/soil/publications_en.htm.
24 The atlases are visually stunning publications of 128 pages, using striking photographs, informative texts and maps to make the chosen topic understandable to an educated reader. They are the result of collaboration between the Joint Research Centre of the Commission in Ispra (Italy) and world leading experts. All the atlases can be downloaded at http://eusoils.jrc.ec.europa.eu/library/maps/maps.html.
Atlases on African and Latin American soils are in preparation.
2005 with the Soil Atlas of Europe, has continued in 2010 with the publication of a Soil Atlas of the Northern Circumpolar Region and a European Atlas of Soil Biodiversity. In addition, a working group dedicated to awareness raising has been set up in the context of the European Soil Bureau Network25.
It is however quite clear that the Commission alone cannot reach all European citizens, particularly the younger ones. National, regional and local initiatives are therefore of the outmost importance. Also thanks to the Strategy, numerous soil awareness raising tools have been developed in Member States. Some of these include the preparation of educational material by soil scientists in cooperation with school teachers in Germany, a documentary on the importance of soil done by the Italian Emilia-Romagna region, funny cards presenting soil types as human characters by the Macaulay Institute in Scotland, events organised by the City of Osnabrück exploiting the local zoo which has a section on soil biodiversity. Documentaries like Dirt (USA), Humus (Austria), Solutions locales pour un désastre global (France), although not directly linked to the Strategy, have nevertheless highlighted to a wide audience that soil is a matter of common concern.
While there is an increased understanding that one cannot address pressing environmental (e.g. loss of biodiversity, droughts and flooding, climate change) and societal (e.g. food for nine billion people, increase bio-energy production) problems without considering the soil dimension, further work is needed in future to continue keeping soil in the spotlight.
Research
The Commission in 2006 considered that there was a need for further research to close the gaps in knowledge about soil and strengthen the foundation for policies, particularly in the filed of soil functions and biodiversity.
To that end, numerous research calls have since been published in the Seventh Framework Programme for Research to specifically address the soil issues highlighted in the Strategy. Some have already been completed (e.g. RAMSOIL on the identification of priority areas and ENVASSO on soil monitoring), others are still ongoing, others have just started (e.g. ECOFINDERS on soil biodiversity). Moreover, the
25 It is a network of national soil science institutions created in 1996 and managed through a permanent Secretariat located at the JRC.