World’s Soil Resources

Can changes to soil management have a significant impact on the seemingly unsustainable global demand
for nutrients?
Can changes to soil management have a significant impact on atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse
gases without jeopardising other functions such as food and fibre production?
Will the extent and rate of soil degradation threaten food security and the provision of ecosystem services
in the coming decades?
Can water-use efficiency be improved through better soil management in key regions facing water scarcity?
How will climate change interact with the distribution of soils to produce new patterns of land use?
A comprehensive global view is needed to respond to these questions. A comprehensive view is also needed
to deal with the trans-national aspects of food security and soil degradation. Through trade, most urbanised
people are protected from local resource depletion. The area of land and water used to support a global citizen
is scattered all over the planet. As a consequence, soil degradation and loss of production are not just local or
national issues – they are genuinely international.
The consideration of soil in policy formulation has been weak in most parts of the world. Reasons for this
weakness include the following.
Lack of ready access to the evidence needed for policy action.
The challenge of dealing with a natural resource that is often privately owned but is at the same time an
important public good.
The long-time scales involved in soil change – some of the most important changes take place over decades
and they can be difficult to detect. As a result, communities and institutions may not respond until critical and
irreversible thresholds have been exceeded.
Perhaps even more significant for policy makers is the disconnection between our increasingly urbanized
human societies and the soil. The task of developing effective policies to ensure sustainable soil management is
neither simple to articulate nor easy to implement. This is true regardless of a country’s stage of development,
its natural endowment of soil resources, or the threats to its soil function.
8.2 | Soils as part of global natural resources management
In setting the stage, it is useful to examine the major drivers, pressures and institutional responses to land
use and then set these within the broader international sustainable development agenda (see Table 8.1).
8.2.1 | Historical context
The ‘Great Dust Bowl’ of the 1930s in the United States of America was pivotal because it triggered
widespread public concern about land use, degradation and the need for sustainable management. Severe
wind erosion resulted from the opening up of vast areas for cereal production through mechanisation, with
associated loss of protective vegetation cover. In response, the Soil Conservation Service of the USDA was
established in 1935. This served as a model for many other countries facing similar issues (Young, 1994). In 1937,
the United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt famously stated ‘The nation that destroys its soil destroys
itself.’ This is perhaps the most succinct and sharpest challenge for policy makers and it remains an all-too-real
Status of the World’s Soil Resources | Main Report Governance and policy responses to soil change
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