Healthy soils are the basis of our life

Young maize field
Photo: BML / Alexander Haiden

Sustainable agriculture and forestry need healthy soils. Soils provide the basis for food and biomass production, they filter the groundwater, store water, nutrients and carbons, and offer habitats to numerous organisms.  However, soils are also a basis for work, living, leisure time, food supply or clean drinking water.

Soil protection is a cross-sectoral issue in Austria and is anchored in a multitude of legal provisions on federal and provincial level, often with references to the relevant hazard sources.

Relevant provisions are for example contained in the Law on the Remediation of Contaminated Sites (“Altlastensanierungsgesetz”), the Smog Alarm and Ozone Act (“Smogalarm- und Ozongesetz”), the Fertilisers Act (“Düngemittelgesetz”), the Forestry Act (“Forstgesetz”), the Water Rights Act (“Wasserrechtsgesetz”), the Waste Management Act (“Abfallwirtschaftsgesetz”), the Chemicals Act (“Chemikaliengesetz”), the Austrian Trade Act (“Gewerbeordnung”) and, in particular, the Soil Protection Acts of the Federal Provinces.

As soil is a finite resource and difficult to regenerate, it is of prime importance to ensure that multifunctional soils are preserved area-wide.

Soil protection is a central issue

Healthy soils are the basis of our food security, which is why the issue of soil protection has played an important role at the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Regions and Water Management for a very long time. In times of climate change it is all the more important to take care of and maintain soil health. Moreover, soils can of course also contribute to climate change mitigation by binding and storing carbon. Activities around the topic of soil are performed in each of the competent Directorate-Generals, whether dealing with the maintenance of the basis of food production and of renewable resources, the filtration of inputs into the groundwater, issues of spatial planning, the recultivation of mining sites following the cessation of mining activities, or the preservation of forest soils.

Soil fertility in focus

In the agriculture sector, the Common Agricultural Policy is one of the most important pillars of area-wide soil protection. Since the start of the first Austrian Agri-environmental Programme (ÖPUL) upon Austria’s accession to the EU in 1995, the issue of soil fertility has come to the fore. Measures like greening, seeding on mulch and direct seeding and, of course, organic farming have contributed significantly to the improvement of soil fertility, to humus formation and to the reduction of erosion in Austria’s arable soils.

However, the impacts of climate change, which also affect soils, give rise to great concern in agriculture and forestry. In the future the efforts to preserve a high soil fertility will therefore be equally important as the achievement of improved fertility where this possible.

Soil protection is a very important issue also in the new Common Agricultural Policy, which will start as from 2023. Therefore, the mandatory measures as well as the regulations on organic farming and the Agri-environmental Programme again provide for many soil protection measures which, on the one hand, foster the formation and preservation of humus in soils and, on the other hand, help reduce soil loss, respectively erosion. More information

12 hectares daily for settlement and transport

However, the great number of claims on soil utilisation also create enormous pressure on the environment. Every day 12 hectares of land are claimed for settlement and transport purposes, but also for intense recreational use, landfill sites, mining areas and similar intense utilisations; 30 to 40 percent of this area are sealed. This does not only lead to the loss of biologically productive areas but in most cases also entails in particular urban sprawl, the fragmentation of natural environments, and the loss of important soil functions.

Together with other federal, provincial and municipal bodies in charge of soil issues the BMLRT makes soil protection one of its priority topics. The concrete goal is to reduce land consumption to 2.5 hectares per day net by 2030. Soil is not renewable and hardly regenerable, therefore area-wide preservation of multifunctional soil must be ensured.

Forest soil - a finite resource

Forest soil is a finite resource as well. The forest soil is the fundament of our forests and is of vital importance for tree growth. Moreover, it provides the optimum habitat for numerous soil organisms, which form a complex network of biocommunities with our trees, and contributes to the biodiversity of our forests. In the current discussion on climate change, forest soils are playing a significant role as carbon sinks. An important partner of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Regions and Water Management in the field of soil research is the Department of Forest Ecology and Soil of the Federal Forest Office (BFW). More information

Advisory services and subsidies

The Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Regions and Water Management is also in charge of an important advisory body, namely the Advisory Board for Soil Fertility and Soil Protection, which has been active for more than 30 years already. All important institutions of relevance to soils are represented in this body. Topics addressed there include for example fertilisation, soil cultivation, soil functions, soil consumption. In addition, numerous funding and research channels deal with the different aspects of soil protection. One crucial novelty which was introduced with the current subsidisation period is the European Innovation Partnership. It carries out research projects in which issues that arise in practice are addressed jointly with scientists to find new solutions. Many topics of relevance to soils have already been dealt with in this research channel. The Ministry’s research programme, too, does a lot of soil-related research. Moreover, soil protection is also a key topic in some educational projects. Of course, soil research is also supported by other organisations on federal as well as on provincial level.