Böll·Europe Podcast #19 | Soil Atlas 2024 (Part 3)

Nobody knows exactly how to permanently restore a lost humus layer on large fields. Yet soil degradation is already a serious problem today. More than 60 percent of soils in the EU are already damaged and more than a third of the world's arable land is already degraded. Will we soon run out of fertile soil to feed a growing world population, as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has already warned? A soil protection directive is to be adopted at EU level. However, critics complain that we are running out of time: soils and the fertile humus layer must be built up and protected more quickly and sustainably using the methods we already know.

A Böll·Europe Podcast episode with:

• Caroline Heinzel, Associate Policy Officer for Soil at the European Environmental Bureau, Brussels
• Jutta Paulus, Member of the European Parliament (Greens/EFA), Brussels
• Ariane Krause, post-doc researcher at the Leibniz Institute for Ornamental Vegetable and Ornamental Crops, State of Brandenburg, Germany
• Audrey S. Darko, founder and lead at “Sabon Sake”, Accra

Links:

• New Soil Atlas 2024: Facts and figures about a vital resource, Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung and TMG Think Tank for Sustainability, November 2024
• Questions and Answers on a Directive on Soil Monitoring and Resilience, European Commission, June 2023
• Study: “The new assessment of soil loss by water erosion in Europe”, Environmental Science & Policy, August 2015
• Article: “Trees and land absorbed almost no CO2 last year. Is nature’s carbon sink failing?” by the” Guardian, October 2024

Podcast episode team:

• Author: Peter Kreysler
• Production: MonoBeat
• Editing: Lena Luig
• Speaker: Marianna Evenstein and Warner Poland