World’s Soil Resources

Soils and soil security are at the heart of this effort. Soil security is defined in McBratney, Field and Koch
(2014) as “maintaining and improving the world’s soil resources to produce food, fibre and freshwater, to
contribute to energy and climate sustainability, and to maintain the biodiversity and the overall protection of
the ecosystem”. Soils perform important ecosystem services (e.g. functions for humanity) including: biomass
production; storing, filtering and transforming nutrients and water; maintaining a gene pool; providing a
source of raw material for products such as bricks and tiles; regulating climate and hydrology; and providing
an archive of cultural heritage. Soils provide ecosystem goods and services directly but some soil processes can
have an adverse impact on the delivery of ecosystem goods and services. The ability of soils to function can
be threatened by human activity (on this, see the Soil Thematic Strategy, SEC, 2006). A growing population,
resource extraction, agricultural production, land use change and climate change all contribute to this threat.
As population increases, food security is becoming more important in the global agenda. Our historical
solution to producing more food has been to mechanize, cultivate more land, and increase the application
of plant nutrients and water. This has led to an almost linear increase in production over time (Pretty, 2008).
However, the rate of increase is likely to plateau, as has already been seen with wheat in Northern Europe
and with rice in Korea and China (Cassman, Grassini and Wart, 2010). In addition, agricultural growth comes
with environmental costs or externalities, which are costs not accounted for in the cost of production. The
degradation caused can adversely affect everyone, and even the production systems themselves - for instance,
declines in pollinators can threaten future production (Deguines et al., 2014).
Figure 7.1 The 11 dimensions of society’s ‘social foundation’ and the nine dimensions of the ‘environmental ceiling’ of the planet.
Source: Vince and Raworth, 2012.
Status of the World’s Soil Resources | Main Report The impact of soil change on ecosystem services
170