The European Environment State and Outlook 2020
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05. Land and soil 2 Land and soil © Kayhan Guc, Sustainably Yours/EEA 3 par A PART 2 Key messages • Land and its soils are the • Land recycling accounts for only • European policy aims to develop foundation for producing food, feed 13 % of urban developments in the EU. the bioeconomy but while new uses and other ecosystem services such as The EU 2050 target of no net land take for biomass and increasing food regulating water quality and quantity. is unlikely to be met unless annual and fodder consumption require Ecosystem services related to land use rates of land take are further reduced increasing agricultural output, land are critical for Europe’s economy and and/or land recycling is increased. for agricultural use has decreased. quality of life. Competition for land and This leads to growing pressures on intensive land use affects the condition • Soil degradation is not well the available agricultural land and soil of soils and ecosystems, altering their monitored, and often hidden, but it is resources which are exacerbated by capacity to provide these services. It widespread and diverse. Intensive land the impacts of climate change. also reduces landscape and species management leads to negative impacts diversity. on soil biodiversity, which is the key • The lack of a comprehensive driver of terrestrial ecosystems’ carbon and coherent policy framework for • Land take and soil sealing continue, and nutrient cycling. There is increasing protecting Europe’s land and soil predominantly at the expense evidence that land and soil degradation resources is a key gap that reduces the of agricultural land, reducing its have major economic consequences, effectiveness of the existing incentives production potential. While the annual whereas the cost of preventing damage and measures and may limit Europe’s rate of land take and consequent is significantly lower. ability to achieve future objectives habitat loss has gradually slowed, related to development of green ecosystems are under pressure from infrastructure and the bioeconomy. fragmentation of peri-urban and rural landscapes. Thematic summary assessment Theme Past trends and outlook Prospects of meeting policy objectives/targets Past trends (10-15 years) Outlook to 2030 2020 2050 Urbanisation and land use by agriculture Deteriorating trends Deteriorating developments Not on track and forestry dominate dominate Soil condition Deteriorating trends Deteriorating developments Not on track dominate dominate Note: For the methodology of the summary assessment table, see the introduction to Part 2. The justification for the colour coding is explained in Section 5.3, Key trends and outlooks (Tables 5.2 and 5.4). 4 par A SOER 2020/Land and soil PART 2 05. Land and soil 5.1 gradual decline in the levels of (soil) Scope of the theme biodiversity (Schneiders et al., 2012; Tsiafouli et al., 2015). Productive land and fertile soil are part of our shared natural capital. The management of land by owners and Land-use management 5.2 users is therefore fundamental for is vital for sustainable Policy context sustainable resource use and delivery resource use and delivery of ecosystem services. These services Prevention and restoration of land and include the provision of food, nutrient of ecosystem services. soil degradation are addressed broadly cycling, supporting all terrestrial in the European policy framework. biodiversity, water regulation and Table 5.1 presents an overview of purification, and mitigating climate selected relevant policy targets and change by carbon sequestration. While objectives. More details on policies the demand for food and the pressures from climate change. Shifting spring related to agriculture and forestry are on land and soil are increasing phenology, droughts, fires, storms available in Chapter 13. globally, biodiversity is visibly declining and floods impact the condition of (UNEP, 2014; IPBES, 2018). ecosystems and the food chain. Regarding land and soil policies, binding targets are lacking at European Current land use practices and A complex pattern of pressures results level. The Seventh Environment observed land cover changes put from socio-economic drivers, expressed Action Programme (7th EAP) and significant pressure on the land system as the need for settlements, transport, the EU Roadmap to a resource (EC DG AGRI, 2015; EEA, 2018c). The clean water, food and fibre production, efficient Europe promote ‘no net land condition of land and soils is affected by and tourism. Future scenarios and take’ in the EU by 2050, aiming to loss of productive land because of land projections point to intensification of mitigate the effect of urban sprawl. take and the type and intensity of land agriculture in northern and western ‘No net land take’ supports the land management. Europe’s soils suffer from Europe and extensification and degradation neutrality target of the sealing, erosion, compaction, pollution, abandonment in the Mediterranean United Nations Convention to Combat salinisation and carbon loss. Additional region (Holman et al., 2017). More Desertification (UNCCD), aiming to pressure on the land system comes intensive land use will lead to a maintain the amount and quality of par A SOER 2020/Land and soil 115 PART 2 TABLE 5.1 Overview of selected policy objectives and targets Policy objectives and targets Sources Target year Agreement Land and soil EU policies help to achieve no net land take by 2050 7th EAP (EU) 2050 Non-binding commitments Reduce soil erosion, increase soil organic matter, and Roadmap to a resource efficient 2020/2050 promote remedial work on contaminated sites Europe (EU) Prevent further degradation of soil, preserve its Thematic strategy on the protection N/A Non-binding functions and restore degraded soil of soil commitment Integrate soil protection into relevant EU policies Restore at least 15 % of degraded ecosystems; better EU biodiversity strategy to 2020 2020 Non-binding integrate biodiversity into agriculture and forestry commitments Targets 2.4 (food security), 3.9 (soil pollution), Global policies: SDGs, United 2030 Non-binding 15.2 (sustainable agricultural and forest management), Nations Convention to Combat commitments and 15.3 (land degradation neutrality) Desertification Combat desertification and mitigate the effects of drought in countries experiencing serious drought and/or desertification Sustainable management of natural resources and Common agricultural policy (CAP) N/A Non-binding climate action: to ensure the long-term sustainability commitments and potential of EU agriculture by safeguarding the natural resources on which agricultural production depends Ensure the monitoring of negative impacts of air National Emission Ceilings Directive 2030 Binding pollution upon ecosystems (Article 9) (includes soils) (Article 9) commitment Identify and assess sites contaminated by mercury, Minamata Convention on Mercury N/A Non-binding and address risks (includes soil contamination) (Article 15) commitment Ensure that emissions do not exceed removals in the LULUCF regulation (2018/841) 2025, 2030 Binding LULUCF sector (no-debit rule) commitment Note: 7th EAP, Seventh Environment Action Programme; LULUCF, land use, land use change and forestry; SDGs, Sustainable Development Goals; N/A, non-applicable. land resources. Land degradation The EU biodiversity strategy to 2020 calls According to a study by Frelih-Larsen neutrality is promoted by Target 15.3 for restoring at least 15 % of degraded et al. (2017), 671 policy instruments of the UN Sustainable Development ecosystems in the EU and to expand related to soil protection exist in Goals (SDGs), which, by 2030, strives the use of green infrastructure, e.g. to the 28 EU Member States (EU-28), to combat desertification and to help overcome land fragmentation. and 45 % of them are linked to EU restore degraded land and soil. SDG 2 The UN Resolution on Soil Pollution policies. For example, the National (to eliminate hunger) connects soils, (UNEP, 2017) requests countries to set Emission Ceilings Directive aims to food production and healthy living. norms and standards to prevent, reduce reduce the impact of emissions of Land and soils are also bound to and manage soil pollution. acidifying substances (Chapter 8); the goals that address poverty reduction Industrial Emissions Directive seeks to (SDG 1), health and well-being through Although specific soil protection prevent emissions from entering the reduced pollution (SDG 3), access to legislation is not in place in the EU, the soil (Chapter 12); several directives clean water and sanitation (SDG 6), the 2006 soil thematic strategy promotes target avoiding soil contamination environmental impact of urban sprawl the inclusion of soil protection from waste disposal and chemicals (SDG 11) and climate change (SDG 13). measures in various policy areas. (Chapters 9 and 10); and the Water 116 SOER 2020/Land and soil PART 2 Framework Directive seeks to due to conversion to industrial sites and identify and estimate water pollution in Ireland due to afforestation. Forests originating from soils (Chapter 4). and transitional woodlands (less than Nevertheless, binding instruments 7.1 % 0.1 % change) and natural grassland and targets are mostly lacking, and (less than 0.3 % change) had most stable not all soil threats and soil functions increase in the area of land cover extents in Europe between are covered. artificial surfaces between 2000 and 2018. 2000 and 2018. 5.3 5.3.2 Key trends and outlooks Urban expansion and land use change 5.3.1 Land cover change the period 2000-2018 show that the area Seventy-two per cent of Europe’s of artificial surfaces has changed the population lives in cities, towns and Land use modifies the quality and most, increasing by 7.1 % (Figure 5.1). suburbs (Dijkstra et al., 2016). Urban quantity of ecosystem services Although the latest period, 2012-2018, agglomerations in the EU are expected (EEA, 2018c) by conditioning the had the lowest increase, during the to grow by 11 % (corresponding to potential of land and soil to provide entire period 2000-2018, 921 km²/year of 34 million people) by 2050 (Kompil et al., these services. Unsustainable land was turned into artificial surfaces.