InBestSoil

Europe’s soil is being irreversibly lost and degraded mainly due to natural factors such as climate change and human activities such as agriculture. While an investment in soils is necessary, soils can take decades to recover. Given this scenario, the EU-funded InBestSoil project will design an economic valuation system of the ecosystem services delivered by a healthy soil and the impacts of soil interventions, and assess its incorporation into business models and incentives. This will allow public and private organisations to assign economic value to their actions. Involving 19 partners like farmers and enterprises from 10 countries, InBestSoil will provide data, evidence, tools and models to assess how investment in soil health can contribute to long-term resilient and sustainable use of soil.

More than half of Europe's soils are degraded by pollution, erosion, and compaction, among other problems, and, in a climate change scenario, this degradation is likely to worsen. Currently, the loss of soil quality is costing an estimated €50 billion per year. However, soil health is still considered an abstract concept that cannot be introduced into financial activities and on which it is very difficult to legislate.

The objective of InBestSoil is to co-create a framework for investment in conservation and recovery of soil health, by developing an economic valuation system of the ecosystem services delivered by a healthy soil and the impacts of soil interventions, and its incorporation into business models and incentives. This will allow public and private organiсations to give economic value to their actions over soil health, co-design strategies with local stakeholders, and work collectively to deliver national and EU policy ambitions. InBestSoil will provide data, evidence, tools and models to assess how investment in soil health can contribute to the transition to a long-term resilient and sustainable use of soil, using 6 lighthouses and 3 living labs, which provides a total of 9 study areas across 4 biogeographic regions from Europe (Boreal, Continental, Atlantic, Mediterranean), and different land uses (agriculture, forest, urban, mining), as models for co-creation and co-design (multi-actor approach, responsible research and innovation and open science). 

This 48-month project will involve twenty partners from ten countries, with very different profiles (universities, small and medium-sized enterprises, consultancies, farmers, and NOGs, among others). This design will facilitate the scaling up of results and their internationalisation, facilitating investments in soil health for companies, public administrations and investment groups around the globe.