In its latest recommendations, the Commission on Soil Protection at the German Environment Agency (KBU) makes it clear: without healthy soils, neither climate protection, food security nor long-term economic growth can be achieved. Soils play a crucial role as the basis for agricultural production, as major carbon stores, as habitats for biodiversity and as key elements of the landscape water cycle. Ongoing soil degradation caused by sealing, erosion, pollution and inappropriate land management increasingly threatens these vital functions.
Against this backdrop, the KBU calls for a substantial strengthening of preventive soil protection within Germany’s Federal Soil Protection Act. In particular, non-material pressures such as soil compaction, loss of organic matter and disruptions to water regulation should be addressed more systematically. Agricultural and forestry soils must be fully integrated into preventive obligations to ensure the long-term preservation and restoration of soil functions. Key priorities include safeguarding soil carbon stocks, rewetting drained peatlands and protecting soil biodiversity.
The recommendations also highlight the need for a nationwide, harmonised soil monitoring system as a prerequisite for effective soil protection and future-proof land use. Only through systematic monitoring and protection of soils can agricultural systems become more resilient, nutrient and water cycles be stabilised and climate change adaptation successfully implemented. Healthy soils are therefore a cornerstone of sustainable, circular agricultural and land-use systems.