Soil organic carbon is crucial to soil health, fertility, ecosystem services, and food production. Soils with high carbon content are likely to be more productive and better able to filter and purify water. 

The impact of soil organic carbon loss

The degradation of one third of the world’s soils has released up to 78 Gt of carbon into the atmosphere. Further damage to soil carbon stocks through poor land management will hamper efforts to limit global temperature rise, to avoid increased floods, droughts and other negative climate change impacts.

With sustainably managing soils, we can mitigate climate change and improve food security.

Carbon sequestration, monitoring and maintenance in soils can enhance climate resilience, as a healthy amount of SOC can help plants cope. Soil rehabilitation in agricultural soils can remove carbon from the atmosphere. SOC sequestration is a slow and reversible process. SSM practices need to be adopted over the long-term. Governments now need to support land users to implement them.

Sustainable environment

Environmental agricultural sustainability is climate-smart sustainable management of agricultural soils to conserve natural resources and protect agricultural ecosystems to support health and wellbeing, now and in the future

Sustainable agriculture seeks to sustain farmers, resources and communities by promoting farming practices and methods that are profitable, environmentally sound and good for communities.

Sustainable agriculture causes healthy ecosystem services

Ecosystem goods and services produce the many life-sustaining benefits we receive from nature—clean air and water, fertile soil for crop production, pollination, and flood control. These ecosystem services are important to environmental and human health and well-being.

Unfortunately, human activities are destroying biodiversity and altering the capacity of healthy ecosystems to deliver this wide range of goods and services.