Soil Health in Focus: LAND4CLIMATE joins EU Policy Dialogue
Exploring policy coherence and farmer perspectives for better soil health
On 19 January 2026, LAND4CLIMATE joined the EU Soil Policy Dialogue at the Committee of the Regions in Brussels. The event brought together more than 200 participants from the European Commission, Member States, research institutions, farming communities and civil society to address one central challenge: how to move from policy ambition to practical implementation for soil health across Europe.
LAND4CLIMATE contributed to discussions on aligning soil-related frameworks, farmer engagement, and innovative monitoring systems that could make soil health both visible and valuable to landowners and local governments.
Four frameworks, one goal: healthy soils
The event unpacked four key EU policy instruments shaping soil outcomes: Soil Monitoring Law (SML), Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), Carbon Removals Certification Framework (CRCF), Nature Restoration Law (NRL). Presentations from DG ENV, DG AGRI, and DG CLIMA revealed opportunities and challenges in aligning these instruments to reduce administrative burdens and accelerate effective implementation. Member States representatives echoed the need for shared learning, consistent indicators, and simplified procedures that can work across national contexts.
An highlight of the Dialogue was the direct input from farmers, who offered candid insights into the practical implications of monitoring requirements, incentive schemes, and market signals. Their message was clear: monitoring systems must be trusted, easy to use, and useful at farm level, otherwise, they risk being sidelined.
Insights from LAND4CLIMATE
The LAND4CLIMATE’s policy briefs echo many of the Dialogue’s conclusions. "Local Action, Global Impact" identifies local barriers to NBS uptake on private land, including unclear compensation, limited trust, and complex permitting. Aligning soil monitoring across EU frameworks can help address these by rewarding outcomes (e.g. improved soil health, runoff reduction) using proportionate, low-cost indicators that are farmer friendly. "Unlocking EU-wide Uptake" underlines the importance of basing incentives on measurable ecosystem benefits. The Dialogue’s call for farmer-centered monitoring aligns with LAND4CLIMATE’s vision: clear soil indicators that demonstrate value to landowners and support payment schemes, turning the monitoration into a tool for empowerment, not bureaucracy.
“Soil health policy doesn’t fail because of a lack of ambition. It fails when the system becomes unreadable for the people expected to implement it. This Dialogue showed that coordination, translation and trust are not ‘soft’ issues, they are the infrastructure that makes soil health policy work on the ground.”
Fabio Volkmann, Stakeholder Manager, Soil Health BENCHMARKS Project
Join the conversation on how to align soil health policy and NBS implementation on private land. Share your reflections, explore LAND4CLIMATE’s policy briefs, and help shape soil monitoring systems that truly work for farmers and nature.
This article was written by Marcelo Gerlach from LAND4CLIMATE consortium partner ICLEI Europe
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