New HoliSoils’ policy brief explores how to tackle soil challenges in Europe
A newly released policy brief developed within the framework of HoliSoils and published by the project coordinator Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), investigates how to address critical forest soil challenges in Europe and proposes sustainable solutions through enhanced forest management and monitoring.
To support EU climate goals and the effective implementation of European regulation, it is key to enhance the quality of greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory reporting. To address this, the policy brief outlines six key recommendations:
- Further measurements and sharing of soil data, models, and expertise are needed to reduce uncertainty in carbon stock changes in GHG inventories.
- Enhancing soil carbon sequestration on mineral soils and reducing emissions on peatlands can help meet LULUCF climate targets in the EU.
- Reducing harvests, increasing stocking density and extending rotation length, as well as sustainable post fire management practices, can increase soil carbon stock.
- Partial peatland hydrology restoration and emission reduction in drained peatland forests can be combined with timber production through continuous cover forestry, avoiding further ditching.
- Forest restoration to more resilient mixed and broadleaf dominated stands enhances adaptation to climate change.
- Readily available methods for assessing soil biodiversity, functional redundancy, and community resilience facilitate implementation of the proposed Soil Monitoring Law.
The policy brief will be presented to researchers, forest and soil experts, stakeholders, and policy makers at a dedicated event organised by the project at the Permanent Representation of Finland to the EU, in Brussels. On 19 March, the “Forest soil challenges in Europe: solutions through sustainable forest management and monitoring” event will address the pressing issues related to forest soil health and management in Europe. Participants will have the possibility to discuss pressing challenges and innovative solutions in sustainable forest soil management, engaging with leading experts from the HoliSoils’ consortium, exchanging knowledge, and exploring collaborative approaches to address forest soil challenges in Europe.
The event will include presentations on sustainable forest soil management, European regulations, quantification of soil carbon stocks and soil biodiversity, fire management challenges, and management of organic soils. An interactive panel will also dive into how forests and forest soils in climate change mitigation.
