The New Thematic Strategy For Protecting Soils In Europe

Soil is a vital and largely non-renewable resource which is increasingly under pressure. Many EU policies (water, waste, chemicals, industrial pollution prevention, nature protection, pesticides, agriculture) are contributing to soil protection. But as these policies have other aims and other scopes of action, they are not sufficient to ensure an adequate level of protection for all soil in Europe. For this reason, the Commission adopted a Soil Thematic Strategy (COM (2006), 231) and a proposal for a Soil Framework Directive (COM (2006), 232) with the objective to protect soils across the EU.

The Soil Thematic Strategy outlines major soil functions: food and other biomass production, storing, filtering, and transformation, habitat and gene pool, physical and cultural environment for mankind, source of raw materials, and points out main soil threats such as erosion, salinization, organic matter decline, compaction, and landslides.