Managing soil functions for a sustainable bioeconomy—Assessment framework and state of the art

Abstract

Bioeconomy strategies have been adopted in many countries around the world. Their sustainable implementation requires a management of soils that maintains soil functions and avoids land degradation. Only then, ecosystem services can be maintained and resources used efficiently. We present an analytical framework for impact assessment that links policy and technology driving forces for soil management decisions to soil processes, soil functional changes, and their impacts on ecosystem services and resource use efficiency, both being targets that have been set by society and are anchored in bioeconomy policy strategies and sustainable development goals. Although the resource use efficiency concept has a long-term tradition, most studies of agricultural management do not address the role of soils in their efficiency assessment. The concept of ecosystem services has received increasing attention over the last years; however, its link to soil functions and soil management practices is still not well established. This study is the first to conceptually link the socioeconomic processes of external drivers for soil management with the natural processes of soil functions and connect them back to impacts on the social system. Application of the framework helps strengthen the science-policy interface and to systemically assess and compare the opportunities and threats of soil management practices from the perspective of goals set by society at different spatial and temporal scales. Insights gained in this way can be applied in stakeholder decisionmaking processes and used to inform the design of governance instruments aimed at sustainable soil management within a bioeconomy. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Assessment and Governance of Sustainable Soil Management

“…The ES concept captures a wide range of regulating, cultural, and supporting services and builds on established scientific ground. Although the linkage between soil functions and ES is still subject to scientific debate [4], the potential for linking natural processes in the soil to societal aspects of human well-being is not contested [42].…”

“…The authors assess the impact of specific organic fertilizers on nutrient use efficiency and water quality. In this case, the production of organic fertilizers from the byproducts of coffee production is a good example of resource-efficient production, which is another paradigm of sustainable management [4]. Such a process proves, however, to have negative side effects on water quality because of the high leaching potential of the nitrogen compounds in the organic fertilizers.…”

“…(agro)chemicals [3]. While agricultural soil management does, by definition, favor the production function over other functions, it is the challenge for sustainable soil management to maintain multifunctionality [4].…”

“…Assessments are applied at the level of EU and national policy, regional landscape planning, and farmers' practices [19]. Helming et al [4] developed a conceptual framework for the sustainability assessment of soil management that links the concepts of resource use efficiency and ecosystem services to account for the most prominent perspectives. This framework involves a dynamic ex ante approach that builds upon the DPSIR framework [9] and links external driving forces to soil management, soil process changes, and their implications for sustainability targets.…”

Institutional Economics of Agricultural Soil Ecosystem Services

“…On the relationship between the concepts of soil ecosystem services and soil functions, see Baveye et al [16], Dominati et al [11], and Adhikari and Hartemink [10]. Soil management influences both types of soil ecosystem services via its influence on soil functions [22].…”