Sustainability

Earth

Soil

Sustainable use of the soil

The objective of sustainable management programmes is to keep and improve soil quality and make human activities compatible with this resource and nature. The soil quality concept, however, is often difficult to define and the criteria also depend on the final use of the soil. For example, the quality of agricultural soil is assessed according to its productivity (yield and quality of products) and to the presence of pollutants that are dangerous for consumers. The quality of forest soil is assessed according to its integrity and stability, while the quality of building soil is judged according to the presence of pollutants that are dangerous for its inhabitants. It is also very important to safeguard the integrity of ecosystems that are particularly precious, like wet areas, tropical forests and the savannah.