THE CENTRALITY OF SOIL

Why we can no longer take ‘Earth’s skin’ for granted

Making the connection

Perhaps because it’s everywhere, the soil beneath our feet is often undervalued. But we’re quickly learning just how thin the ‘Earth’s skin’ can be. Over one third of the Earth’s surface is degraded, including half of all agricultural soil – which is the only source of many of the nutrients in our food.

At CIFOR-ICRAF, soil scientists take a whole systems approach to understanding the connections between soil and food nutrition and security, ecosystem restoration, and climate change mitigation and adaptation. This feature showcases some of CIFOR-ICRAF’s recent work on soil health and land restoration.

Next step for nature

LABORATORY
SOIL-PLANT SPECTRAL DIAGNOSTICS LABORATORY