iDiv’s Dr Monica Farfan contributed to the North American chapter of the Status of the World’s Soil Resources report. This is a major assessment coordinated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) through its Global Soil Partnership and the Intergovernmental Technical Panel on Soils (ITPS)).
Released during the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) COP17 in Mongolia in late August, the report provides a global overview of soil health, threats, and opportunities for sustainable management. In this interview, Farfan discusses her contribution to the assessment, the key challenges facing soils today, and why healthy soils are essential for both people and nature.
You played a key role in producing this global assessment of soil health. Which specific insights or contributions did you bring to the report, and why were they important for understanding the state of the world’s soils?
Farfan: I think the most important aspects of the section I worked on were highlighting emerging and intensifying issues causing soil biodiversity to deteriorate, but then also specifying how to address these. In the case of soil biodiversity, policy and legislation that is informed by science-based knowledge and constraints of stakeholders are key.
Major international reports require intense collaboration across disciplines and continents. What was your experience working with the global expert team, and what did you find most challenging or most rewarding in the process?
Farfan: At the level of our scientific writing team, we were all from North America (the USA, Canada, Mexico). It became apparent immediately that the attention paid by each nation to the problem of deteriorating soil biodiversity and its associated ecosystem services varied widely. This meant that sometimes we had to say that lack of data across the region made it difficult to be accurate with the level of deterioration and how to protect soil resources across these very different governmental bodies.
From your perspective, what are the most urgent or surprising findings of the report, and how can stakeholders (policymakers, land managers, or the public) interpret these results?
Farfan: While there are some areas for hope, globally, soil degradation is increasing primarily due to anthropogenic activities (intensifying agriculture, pollution, extreme weather events from global warming, etc.) Some solutions suggested are science-based, but they must also be reinforced by societal pressures including consumer awareness, commitment from industrial agriculture to engage in sustainable practices, and environmental policies that reward protection of soil.
How did iDiv’s scientific expertise and ongoing projects contribute to the evidence base or conceptual framing of this global soil assessment?
Farfan: The Status of the World’s Soil Resources report was definitely influenced by ongoing projects at iDiv, such as the Soils4Anthropocene Strategic Project, which is an umbrella project for many soil biodiversity research and monitoring initiatives around the world. We were fortunate to be able to tap this network of experts to contribute not only by defining the most salient issues in North America, but also with common goals for monitoring soil quality, soil biodiversity, and protecting life in soils.
Based on the report’s conclusions, what do you see as the most important next steps for soil research — both globally and within iDiv — to support healthier, more resilient ecosystems?
Farfan: We now know that soil is a non-renewable resource. Protecting soil before it deteriorates through pollution, soil sealing, and/or salinisation and desertification is more effective than trying to restore or remediate soil after degradation. Globally, research is needed in developing common, economically feasible, and ecologically informative soil biodiversity monitoring methodologies to assess and understand patterns of soil function. iDiv can play a huge role in this through continued cooperation of experts in initiatives like Soil BON, Soils for Europe (SOLO), and Soils4Anthropocene. Also, in research group collaborations to answer questions like, do current methods used to select areas for biodiversity conservation also benefit soil biodiversity. And how to we incentivise sustainable soil use?
Contact
Dr Monica Farfan
Science Policy Coordinator, Soils for Europe (SOLO)
German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig
E-Mail: monica.farfan@idiv.de
Additional Resources
Status of the World’s Soil Resources report
FAO at COP17: New report warns soil degradation worsening as adoption of proven solutions lags
Soils4Europe
Soils4Anthropocene
Soil BON