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Environmental information systems
Soil is an essential part of the forest ecosystem. It provides water and nutrients to trees and other vegetation, as well as habitats for plants and animals and provides a source of clean drinking water. Soil functions as a filter and buffer against pollutant inputs and allows trees to anchor themselves with their root systems. Soil also plays an important role in carbon storage and can be divided into two categories: organic and mineral.
Main messages
The soil organic carbon is higher in cooler regions in Northern Europe and mountainous areas
Forest soils host a wide variety of organisms, from bacteria and fungi to earthworms and bugs to wild boars, rooting around in the ground
More than 35% of European forest soils are considered degraded
Related policies
The Soil strategy for 2030 sets out a framework and concrete measures to protect and restore soils.
The EU Forest Strategy for 2030 sets a vision and concrete actions to improve the quantity and quality of EU forests and strengthen their protection, restoration and resilience.
The EU Nature Restoration Regulation aims to restore ecosystems, habitats and species across the EU’s land and sea areas
The Soil monitoring law provides a legal framework to help achieve healthy soils by 2050.
Related targets
- As set out in the Farm to Fork Strategy and the EU Biodiversity Strategy, the Commission will take action to reduce by 50% the overall use of – and risk from – chemical pesticides by 2030 and reduce by 50% the use of more hazardous pesticides by 2030. The Commission will also promote the goal of zero pollution from nitrogen and phosphorus flows from fertilisers through reducing nutrient losses by at least 50%, while ensuring that there is no deterioration in soil fertility.
- The Nature Restoration Regulaton requests Member States to restore organic soils, such as drained peatlands, which are in agriculture use. By 2050, at least 50% of such areas should be restored.
- The Soil deal for Europe aims to reduce the area of land currently affected by unsustainable erosion from 25% to sustainable levels. As well as reduce compaction of soils to go below current levels of 23% - 33%.
Related resources
EU Soil Observatory (EUSO) aims to be the principal provider of reference data and knowledge at EU-level for all matters relating to soil.
Soil monitoring in Europe – Indicators and thresholds for soil health assessments — European Environment Agency (europa.eu)
LUCAS Soil dataThe Soil Module of the ‘Land Use/Cover Area frame statistical Survey’ (generally referred to as LUCAS Soil) is the only harmonised and regular collection of soil samples for the entire territory of the European Union (EU).
SoilGrids is a system for digital soil mapping based on global compilation of soil profile data and environmental layers
The HoliSoils projectidentifies and tests novel soil management practices aiming to mitigate climate change and sustain provision of various ecosystem services.The related ISRIC databasecontains soil property datasets and maps produced by the project.
EUdaphobase is an EU initiative focused on creating an open-access, Europe-wide soil biodiversity data infrastructure to support environmental monitoring, policy assessments, and sustainable soil management. Its core platform, Edaphobase, compiles extensive data on soil organisms—including their distribution, ecological traits, and environmental conditions—from scientific studies, field research, and institutional collections.