Abstract

Maintaining and improving the soil resource is crucial for the protection of the global environment, the sustainability issues, the human well-being, and the economic development. Soil is in fact a complex integrated system whose multitude of biotic and abiotic properties allows the provision of functions, which in turn deliver ecosystem services for human benefits. The most widespread agrarian, forest and food production systems may have negative impacts on soil, thus exacerbating its degradation processes. There is an increasing awareness that improper use or poor soil management, together with the most recent events related to climate change, jeopardize the proper functioning of soils. The need to protect the soil resource is thus widely shared internationally. One of the major challenges in the new growth EU strategy is to accomplish food security and to promote sustainable agricultural development, achieving the climate neutrality by 2050. Given the crucial role of soil for human activities, the Soil Thematic Group of the Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences (DISTAL), Alma Mater Studiorum - University of Bologna (Italy), states its position identifying the main challenges for the future growth of EU in: - The organic carbon loss; - Bio-technologies for agro-waste conversion into eco-efficient bio-based products; - Soil biodiversity: preservation and restoration; - The agroecological systems for supporting the farm to fork and ecosystems and biodiversity policies; - Towards a soil sustainable and suitable farm and food system; - Forest soil restoration; - Next generation policy instruments for soil conservation and carbon sequestration; - Soil as energy resource for sustainable rural facilities; - Novel methodologies and approaches to multi-criteria landscape analysis, monitoring and planning.