Preventing and Remediating Degradation of Soils in Europe – RECARE Final Policy Conference

RECARE Abschlusskonferenz
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Preventing and Remediating Degradation of Soils in Europe – RECARE Final Policy Conference

Event
Date
Location
Brussels, Belgium

What is the best way forward for soil protection in the EU? How can we improve EU policies to secure the delivery of soil ecosystem services? These questions were the focus of the final policy conference of the RECARE project which took place on 27 September 2018 in Brussels. More than 100 participants from 21 countries participated in the conference.

The conference presented project findings on:

  • effective strategies for prevention and remediation of soil threats and their uptake among land managers
  • the impacts of European policies, and
  • options for future policy responses.

Participants discussed the implications of RECARE project findings for the design of future European policies on soil protection. The results of the conference as well as the presentations are available on the RECARE conference website.

Soils in European Union are a vital environmental resource in need of better protection. Despite the wide recognition of the importance of soils, soil protection efforts in European Union have been partial, fragmented and insufficient to halt their degradation. Calls for improving this situation have increasingly come from scientists, policymakers, non-governmental organisations and citizens. The discussions and negotiations around the design of European policies for post-2020 period offer the opportunity to improve the current situation.

Within the RECARE project, Ecologic Institute lead WP9 where an integrated impact assessment of European and national soil and land use-related policies and strategies was carried out, and policy recommendations for improving policy coherence and integration were developed.

Policy briefs on the topics "Soil Sealing and Land Take", "Subsoil compaction" and "Remediating Historical Soil Contamination", as well as a brochure with the most important project results are available for download.

Tweets from the conference were published with the hashtag #RECARE2018.

Contact

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Funding
Organizer
Partner
Wageningen University & Research Centre, Alterra (Alterra), Netherlands
Team
Sandra Naumann
Karl Lehmann
Date
Location
Brussels, Belgium
Language
English
Participants
120
Project
Project ID
Keywords
Soils, European Union, soil protection, agriculture, land use
Europe
RECARE policy conference output
ProjectFP 7Preventing and Remediating Soil Degradation (RECARE)
 
©2014 Erik van den Elsen (Alterra)
Soils provide a range of functions upon which humans depend, such as food production, water regulation, a physical basis for construction, biodiversity and habitat for organisms, and nutrient cycling and carbon storage. In Europe, soils are threatened by numerous... Read more

Preventing and Remediating Soil Degradation (RECARE)

Duration
-
Funding
PublicationBrochureRECARE Project – Finding and sharing solutions to protect our soils
 
RECARE-Projektbroschüre
This brochure describes the threats to soils in Europe, how the RECARE project has addressed these, and provides clear examples of soil management options and policy solutions. Ecologic Institute's Ana Frelih-Larsen and Sandra Naumann contributed to the RECARE project... Read more

Mills, Jane and Matt Reed (eds.) 2018: RECARE Project – Finding and sharing solutions to protect our soils. RECARE project brochure.

PublicationPolicy BriefSoil Sealing and Land Take
 
RECARE Policy Brief
Despite the extensive loss of productive soils and the valuable ecosystem services that soils provide, the awareness of the magnitude and negative implications of these processes remain relatively low. In this RECARE policy brief, Ecologic Institute's Sandra Naumann and... Read more

Naumann, Sandra; Ana Frelih-Larsen and Gundula Prokop 2018: Soil Sealing and Land Take. RECARE Policy Brief. Ecologic Institute, Environment Agency: Berlin, Vienna.

PublicationPolicy BriefSubsoil Compaction – A threat to sustainable food production and soil ecosystem services
 
RECARE Policy Brief
The persistent damaging impacts of subsoil compaction call for policy intervention in order to secure yields and adapt to climate change, as well as to sustain soil ecosystem services for future generations. The authors of this RECARE Policy Brief, including Ana Frelih... Read more

Schjønning, Per et. al. 2018: Subsoil Compaction – A threat to sustainable food production and soil ecosystem services. RECARE Policy Brief. Aarhus University, Ecologic Institute: Aarhus, Berlin.

PublicationPolicy BriefRemediating Historical Soil Contamination
 
RECARE Policy Brief
The problem of historical contamination remains an important gap in European policymaking on soils. Political commitment is required to address the issue of historical contamination systematically by providing a common EU framework to guide and facilitate activities at... Read more

Frelih-Larsen, Ana et. al. 2018: Remediating Historical Soil Contamination: Effective Measures and Policy Solutions. RECARE Policy Brief. Ecologic Institute: Berlin.