Policy Frameworks - Soil Carbon: Science, Management and Policy for Multiple Benefits - page 346

been put forward, based on partnerships
and 'coalitions of the willing'. A large com-
munity of stakeholders and decision makers
is in favour of more effective measures to
protect natural resources for future gener-
ations, and is willing to form voluntary
partnerships to move forward with more
ambitious agendas.
A new initiative, a Global Soil Part-
nership 5 (GSP), has been put forward by
the FAO, with the strong support of the
European Commission, to address the sus-
tainable management of global soil re-
sources and federate all stakeholders and
parties that are willing to move on with
effective soil protection measures. The
partnership should establish a more effect-
ive science-policy interface, addressing
policy-relevant scientific and technical
issues related to soils (Montanarella and
Vargas, 2012).
SOC is a key element of the GSP. Sus-
tainable soil management practices pro-
moted by the GSP will protect current SOC
resources from further depletion and will
allow for increased SOC levels in the long
term. The GSP is in the beginning of its
implementation, following its official ap-
proval at the end of 2012 by the FAO Coun-
cil. The planned Intergovernmental Panel
on Land and Soil (ITPS) will become the
main scientific reference for future policy
making in relation to soils and SOC man-
agement. Full implementation of the GSP,
started in 2013, will hopefully lead to a
new approach to soil protection at global
and regional scales.

negative trend is recognized (Rusco et al .,
2001; EC, 2006b).

The Soil Thematic Strategy
(COM (2006) 231 final, COM (2006)
232 and COM (2012) 46)

The Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection
(COM (2006) 231 final; EC, 2006b) outlines
the overall strategy concerning soils in the
EU. The Thematic Strategy and its related
proposal for an EU Soil Framework Direct-
ive (COM (2006) 232; EC, 2006a) have been
reviewed recently by the European Com-
mission (COM (2012) 46; EC, 2012c). The
Strategy states that soils are a non-renewable
resource subject to a series of degradation
processes or threats: erosion, decline in OM,
local and diffuse contamination, sealing,
compaction, decline in biodiversity, salin-
ization, landslides (EC, 2006a,b, 2012).
SOC management is at the core of the
strategy to protect SOC as one of the main
soil properties. The proposed Soil Frame-
work Directive calls for the delineation of
areas in Europe threatened by SOC decline
and for the establishment of appropriate
measures to reverse the negative trend. Around
45% of the soils in Europe have low or very
low OC content (from 0 to 2%) and 45%
have a medium content (from 2 to 6%). Sev-
eral factors are responsible for the decline in
SOM, and many of them relate to human ac-
tivity (Van-Camp et al ., 2004; Zdruli et al .,
2004). According to the report from the EEA
(2010), these factors include conversion of
grassland, forests and natural vegetation to
arable land; deep ploughing of arable soils;
drainage, liming, nitrogen (N) fertilizer use;
and tillage of peat soils and unsustainable
crop rotations without temporary grasslands.
The directive is still in its discussion phase
within the Council, with some EU Member
States still voicing strong opposition to the
proposed legislative framework. Neverthe-
less, the Soil Framework Directive is one of
the elements of the EU Thematic Strategy
that also includes the systematic integration
of soil protection elements in other related EU
legislative instruments, such as the Common

SOC in European Legislative
Frameworks

SOC is a crosscutting issue entering many
different EU policy frameworks. The EU
counts for more than 70 billion t of OC in
soils. For this reason, it is necessary to promote
practices that favour maintaining or even in-
creasing SOM levels (SoCo, 2009). In Eur-
ope, we have observed a decline of organic
matter levels and the need to reverse this