BIOSCHAMP & the EU Soil Strategy 2030

In December 2021, the EU Commission made public the latest “EU Soil Strategy” until 2030, setting out a framework and measures to protect and restore soils, and ensure that they are used sustainably:

Too few know that the thin layer that lies below our feet holds our future. Soil and the multitude of organisms that live in it provide us with food, biomass and fibres, raw materials, regulate the water, carbon and nutrient cycles and make life on land possible. It takes thousands of years to produce a few centimetres of this magic carpet –

EU Soil Strategy 2030.

Why are healthy soils important?

Healthy soils are important for our climate, food and ecosystems for various reasons:

  1. Soil is an essential ecosystem containing more than 25% of all living organisms on the planet.
  2. Healthy soils are the largest terrestrial carbon pool in the planet: key ally in the fight against climate change.
  3. The EU loses around € 38 billion per year due to soil degradation and loss of ecosystems services.

Main goals of the EU Soil Strategy

The EU Soil Strategy has the following goals:

  1. Combat desertification and restore degraded land and soil (Sustainable Development Goal 15.3)
  2. Restore significant areas of degraded and carbon-rich ecosystems, including soils.
  3. Achieve an EU net greenhouse gas removal of 310 million tonnes CO2 equivalent per year.
  4. Reach good ecological and chemical status in surface waters and good chemical and quantitative status in groundwater by 2027.
  5. Reduce nutrient losses by at least 50%, the overall use and risk of chemical pesticides by 50% and the use of more hazardous pesticides by 50% by 2030.

In the long term, this is to translate into clearly reduced soil pollution (no longer harmful for human health or ecosystems); a land-based climate neutrality by 2035 and a climate resilent EU society.

BIOSCHAMP contributions to healthy EU soils

BIOSCHAMP works to develop biostimulants that foster sustainable mushroom growth. This type of solutions contribute to reducing the need of primary producers and growers from the mushroom industry for chemical products like pesticides – many of which have been associated with health and environmental issues, including soil degradation.

The use of pesticides has been a hot topic for some time in the sector. In recent years mushroom disseases have increased (currently mycoparasites are responsible for the largest crop losses in commercial mushroom production!), and, as a result, an increasing number of mushroom growers are not only struggling to reduce the use of pesticides, but to to find pesticides or chemical solutions that defeat these disseases and foster mushroom growth.

By developing an integrated approach that takles this key challenges of the mushroom industry, BIOSCHAMP is supporting the EU Healthy Soils strategy; contributing to the reduction of nutrient losses, the use of pesticides and of more hazardous chemicals by 2030.

All in all, supporting a climate neutral Europe.

Resources

Want to know more? You can take a look to these documents:

  1. The EU Soil Strategy for 2030
  2. This quick infographic on the topic.
  3. The Global Soil Biodiversity Atlas.

Our ambition to make all soils healthy by 2050 is essential to fight climate change, ensure our forests are healthy, our water clean and our land rich, fertile and resilient. We are taking decisive action to protect and nurture this non-recoverable natural resource, which we cannot afford to lose.

Virginijus Sinkevičius, Commissioner for the Environment, Oceans and Fisheries

The thin layer that lies below our feet is literally the basis for our
existence. It is the foundation for 95% of the food we eat. Soil is a living ecosystem that is key for life on the planet and that holds our future. It is high time it gets the legal protection it deserves.

Frans Timmermans, Executive Vice-President for the European Green Deal

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Marga Pérez: direccion@ctich.com
Jaime Carrasco: j.carrasco@ctich.com

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No. 101000651.

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No. 101000651.

Contact points

Marga Pérez: direccion@ctich.com
Jaime Carrasco: j.carrasco@ctich.com

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Post Views: 750