Examining The Role of Soil in Promoting Sustainable Development and Achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Abstract

Soil is a critical component of terrestrial ecosystems, playing an invaluable role in supporting plant growth, regulating water and nutrient cycles, filtering pollutants, and providing habitat for soil organisms. However, increasing pressures from human activities, including intensive agriculture, deforestation, urbanization, and climate change are degrading soils across the world. Therefore, sustainable management of soil resources is imperative to ensure continued provisioning of ecosystem services, promote sustainable development outcomes, and help us to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This paper reviews literature across multiple disciplines to examine the vital links between soil and realization of the SDGs. Soil properties influence productivity and food security, water availability and quality, climate regulation through carbon storage, biodiversity conservation, and human health. Degraded soils undermine these ecosystem services, exacerbating poverty, hunger, and inequality. Research shows ecosystem-based approaches that prioritize soil health, including conservation agriculture, agroecology, and regenerative systems, can sustainably intensify agriculture while restoring multi-functionality. Additionally, nature-based solutions utilizing plant-soil interactions for restoration have demonstrated cost-effectiveness. Achieving land degradation neutrality is now an explicit target under the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), emphasizing the need to scale soil-focused initiatives within the SDG framework. Therefore, protecting and restoring global soil assets can serve as a nexus in policy frameworks to simultaneously advance progress across multiple SDGs.