Soil protection is supported by policies at international, European, national, and local levels. These policy frameworks define objectives for soil protection, establish monitoring systems, and guide land-use regulation, restoration strategies, and management standards. In this way, policies provide the foundation of how soil is assessed, valued, used, and safeguarded in society, including how soil functions and ecosystem services are considered in planning and decision-making.
However, policies alone do not protect soil. The real-life effects of policies depend on how they are interpreted, implemented, enforced, and integrated into everyday practice and societal behaviour. While policy regulations set directions and boundaries at the administrative level, outcomes emerge through a combination of institutions, economic conditions, cultural priorities, and individual and collective decisions. Research in environmental governance shows that policy effectiveness is closely linked to implementation capacity and societal engagement (Newig & Fritsch, 2009; UNEP, 2019). Soil governance should therefore be understood not only as a legal structure, but as a system of interactions between policies, institutions and society. These interactions ultimately shape how soil protection is realised in practise.
Optional: For more details on international soil governance have a look at this overview article by Bodle (2022), part of a special issue on soil governance with contributions from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Global Soil Partnership’s (GSP) experts.
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