From Soil Data to Action: The Role of Soil Information Systems for the Rio Conventions
Land degradation is a pressing global environmental and social issue; 100 million hectares of soil – an equivalent of four football fields every second – is degraded every year. Soil erosion is a leading cause of land degradation and desertification as healthy soil provides physical resistance to erosion. Land and soil degradation costs the European Union EUR 50 billion annually, Asia USD 84 billion and Africa USD 65 billion, but investing in landscape restoration can bring a return of over five times the cost of inaction. In Sub-Saharan Africa, declining soil fertility and land degradation have contributed to persistently low agricultural productivity, limiting the ability of smallholder farmers to achieve sustainable crop yields. These challenges have exacerbated food insecurity and rural poverty, making the restoration of soil health a critical priority for resilient and productive food systems. Furthermore, soil is the largest terrestrial carbon sink and the most biodiverse ecosystem on Earth; scaling soil health can contribute significantly to achieving national goals associated with livelihoods and planetary health which comprise the objectives of the three Rio Conventions (UNCCD, UNFCCC, CBD).
Soil organic carbon (SOC) is the one soil health indicator shared across all three Rio Conventions. SOC is also the foundation of emerging carbon finance mechanisms, meaning that investment in SOC monitoring pays returns across science, policy, and finance simultaneously. There are multiple soil data collection and soil health monitoring efforts currently being implemented in various contexts and scales, presenting a key opportunity to bring together and organise soil information, initiatives and stakeholders toward monitoring of soil targets within the Rio Conventions.
Growing efforts, such as the UK Soil Monitoring Law and the Africa Fertilizer and Soil Health Action Plan, are encouraging nations to invest in Soil Information Systems (SISs) for national reporting and evidence-based decision making. Beyond meeting international reporting obligations, robust SISs provide the foundation for monitoring soil health, restoring soil fertility and guiding site-specific soil and fertiliser management practices that are essential for increasing agricultural productivity, improving food security and strengthening climate resilience. Although implementation of these is still underway, they represent growing recognition that harmonised global, regional and national soil information systems can reduce reporting burdens while simultaneously supporting the achievement of global goals.
This policy brief outlines the case for policymakers to scale SISs and integrate monitoring of SOC in national reporting towards the goals of the Rio Conventions. It explores the context and need for advancing SISs to support voluntary targets laid out in national LDN, NBSAPs, and NCDs.
