Soil as a Common Resource

In many regions, soils are privately owned or locally managed, yet the functions they perform have consequences that extend far beyond property boundaries. 

For example: 

• Sealing soil in urban areas reduces infiltration, increasing surface runoff and flood risk downstream. 

• Soil erosion can transport sediments, nutrients, and pollutants into rivers and lakes, affecting water quality far from the original site. 

• Loss of soil organic carbon contributes to greenhouse gas emissions and affects global climate regulation. 

• Degradation of peatlands releases stored carbon and alters regional hydrology. 

These examples show that soil is both a locally managed resource and a shared environmental system whose impacts extend across landscapes and governance scales (Peake & Robb, 2022). 

This creates a governance challenge, where decisions about soil use are often made at the local scale, while their impacts may extend to regional, national, or global levels. Because soil functions are closely linked to climate regulation, water systems, biodiversity, and food production, protecting soils requires coordination across sectors and different levels of governance (Heuser, 2022). Effective soil governance is therefore essential to ensure that soil resources are managed sustainably across sectors and governance levels (Hannam, 2021; Peake & Robb, 2022).