SOILCHAINS

Healthy soils are essential for biodiversity, climate regulation, food security, and the development of sustainable economies. However, global soils face pressure from unsustainable land use and land degradation, which are linked to the consumption of bio-based products such as food, feed, fibre, and wood. Current footprinting frameworks do not sufficiently capture these effects due to a lack of comprehensive, spatially explicit soil health indicators and data. SoilChains aims to co-design, implement, and demonstrate SoilTracker, an integrated global soil footprinting framework that assesses, mitigates, and communicates the impacts of soil degradation related to EU demand for major bio-based products, while promoting sustainable land management and consumption pattern. SoilChains adopts a multi-scale and interdisciplinary co-design approach, integrating harmonised soil health indicators with Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), dynamic material flow analysis, multi-regional input-output modelling, and scenario-based outlook development. Central to the framework is empirical evidence collected through synchronised soil sampling and analysis, as well as stakeholder engagement, at sites across Latin America (Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Uruguay) and Africa (Ethiopia, Ghana, Ivory Coast), focusing on essential commodities such as cacao, coffee, soy, and timber. SoilChains will deliver actionable outputs to empower policymakers, businesses, and consumers to make informed choices that relate to soil health. These outputs include a baseline for the EU's global soil footprint, a portfolio of soil-wise land management practices, a Soil Footprint Dashboard to demonstrate soil-health impacts from different commodities, land management practices, and future scenarios, guidelines for updating certification with more comprehensive approaches to soil health and labelling systems to cover soil health criteria, and evidence-based policy recommendations.