UNESCO Soil Initiative – Baseline soil health report for UNESCO-designated sites

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Soil Initiative aims to support UNESCO Biosphere Reserves and Global Geoparks in becoming “soil sentinels” that tell their unique soil stories, better understand and manage the health of their soils, and more effectively respond to growing challenges such as pollution, degradation, and climate impacts. The development of so-called soil stories will stimulate the understanding of and communication about their soil resources.

The project focuses on developing a baseline soil health report that compiles existing information on soil conditions and related environmental factors. The report will serve as a template for future assessments and provide the scientific foundation for site-specific soil stories that can support sustainable land management, conservation, and stakeholder engagement.

The project’s main objectives include:

• Developing a baseline soil health report template tailored to UNESCO sites, integrating key soil indicators and environmental information from recognised global and regional soil data sources.

• Creating a structured inventory of existing soil and environmental data, including maps, reports, and databases, accompanied by standardised metadata following the Dublin Core standard.

• Providing an initial assessment of soil health conditions and identifying potential priorities for soil conservation, monitoring, and sustainable land management.

• Supporting capacity development by training the UNESCO Soil Initiative’s Technical Advisory Group and site managers in the interpretation and use of the baseline soil health reports.

The baseline soil health report will integrate a wide range of environmental and soil-related information, including data on land use, climate conditions, water resources, soil properties, soil types, and potential soil threats such as erosion, flooding, pollution, or landslides.

Data will be compiled from recognised sources such as national and regional soil inventories, the European Soil Data Centre (ESDAC), the European Soil Observatory (EUSO), Copernicus Land Monitoring Service (CLMS), and global soil databases managed by ISRIC.

The resulting report will provide an overview of soil health conditions for the site and will form the foundation for developing soil-related management strategies and long-term monitoring efforts.

ISRIC contributes to the initiative by supporting the development of the baseline soil health report template, compiling and analysing relevant soil datasets, and integrating information from global soil databases. ISRIC will also contribute to the interpretation of soil indicators and the preparation of soil health assessments and provide capacity building activities for UNESCO employees and site managers through dedicated training webinars.

UNESCO

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