A Strategy for Taking Soil Carbon into the Policy Arena - Soil Carbon: Science, Management and Policy for Multiple Benefits - page 66

For the discourse, the following points
should be taken into account:
• theholisticperceptionofthesoilfertility
from farmers, often linked to the cult/
religious relationships between the so-
ciety with soil/earth;
• theeconomicaccessoffarmerstore-
sources (e.g. fertilizers, tools, machines,
etc.);
• thepossiblecompetitionbetweenman-
agement strategies for the same land
resource (e.g. competition for plant res-
idues between fertilization, feeding the
cattle or building material);
• theremovalofresiduesforlivestockor
fuel is a big issue that needs invest-
ments in fodder production and effi-
cient or alternative fuel sources; and
• theneedtoestablishapartnershipbe-
tween the growing urban population and
the rural farming communities for return-
ing the organic waste (biowaste) generated
in cities to the soil of the rural areas.

• Soil protection needs to take into ac-
count the availability of other natural re-
sources, pedo-climatic conditions and
land management (EC, 2009, 2012).

Training programmes at secondary schools
and universities for both students and tea-
chers should focus on soil as a patrimony
and on the importance of SOM in adequate
soil management. Events and activities to
address the public (soil celebration day, cam-
paigns of awareness through media, etc.)
will help in raising awareness.

International scale: the inclusion
of SOC in sustainable development
(mainstreaming)

The perception of soil as a patrimony for so-
ciety is not well developed, given that most
soils are in private property and are not per-
ceived as a public good, like air and water.
Soil as a resource is essential to provide
goods and services not only to the land-
owner but also to all of us. There is the need
to move from soil protection to the protec-
tion of soil functions. While soils are mostly
in private property, soil functions are de-
livering public goods and therefore need to
be protected beyond private property rights.
Only an adequate SOC/SOM management
will permit the delivery of these services.
At the international level, hotspots of aware-
ness activities exist that address small and
often specialized audiences. 1 Unfortunately,
there is a lack of communication and coord-
ination between these hotspots that reduces
the potential of an international awareness
on the importance of SOC.
In order to facilitate the acceptance of
SOC as a mainstream environmental con-
cern, the level of SOC/SOM to be reached
in a specific region could be used as one of
the proxies. A teaming up of all failed efforts
to raise awareness in a network or plat-
form would no doubt increase its efficiency.
Moreover, all types of media should be
approached with an innovative approach:
cultural services (exhibitions, movies), soci-
etal concerns (television programmes, jour-
nals) and educational targets (workshops,
conferences). 2 Finally, an international

National scale: value of soil and SOC -
regional patterns

'SOC benefits' is a purely scientific concept
and is often perceived in the scientific
community only. Even though the multiple
functions of SOM are well known in the sci-
entific arena, these concepts generally do
not reflect any human cultural dimension.
As a consequence, the public does not in-
corporate SOC/SOM benefits in its own cul-
ture. To make the population more aware of
the benefits of SOM/SOC, the proposal is to
develop actions at the national level, start-
ing from the concept of 'soil as a patrimony
and a natural capital' (Costanza and Daly,
1992; Pascual et al ., 2010; Chapters 15 and
18, this volume) that the society needs to
transmit to the next generations. This mes-
sage needs to be incorporated in school and
university programmes focusing on the fol-
lowing points:
• Soil is a non-renewable resource, to be
protected against erosion, decline in
organic matter and biodiversity, etc.
(EC, 2009, 2010).