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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 The soil is the natural and semi-natural material which forms the uppermost layer of the earth's crust, and covers the land surface 1. Its most widely acknowledged function is as the medium in which plants grow. As the interface between land, air and water, soil is essentially a non-renewable resource that performs many vital functions. It is the basis for food, fibre and other production, at the same time storing, filtering and transforming many substances, such as water, carbon and nitrogen. Soil has a role as a habitat for many organisms and as a gene pool, it serves as a platform for human activities, landscape and heritage and it acts as a provider of raw materials. Thus soil supports a large number of economic as well as environmental functions (2,3,4)
1.2 Scotland's soils are diverse and differ markedly from those in the rest of the UK1. The majority have acidic and organic-rich surface layers, including large areas of blanket bog up to 8 metres thick. Such soils are often not managed intensively and play important roles in nature conservation, forestry, biodiversity and carbon storage, making a highly significant contribution to landscape value. By contrast, soils suitable for arable cropping are limited largely to eastern Scotland. Although relatively small in extent, these soils have produced some of the highest yields of wheat and barley in the world. Lowland soils in the west of Scotland support very productive pastures and the associated dairy sector. Many industries, including food and farming, forestry as well as tourism depend on the sustainable use of soils.
Soil protection and the Government's Purpose
1.3 The Scottish Government has made increasing sustainable economic growth its overarching purpose.
1.4 To achieve this purpose, the Government has identified 15 National Outcomes, including
We value and enjoy our built and natural environment and protect it and enhance it for future generations.
1.5 Protecting Scotland's soils aligns with and supports the Government purpose of increasing sustainable economic growth and the National Outcome identified above.
1.6 The Government has also identified 5 Strategic Objectives, which play a key role in focusing the activity of Government and its delivery partners. Sustainable soil use contributes in particular to the Greener objective, work on which in turn is focused on five themes described in table 1.1.
1.7 Because of its wide-ranging functions, sustainable soil use also contributes towards other Government Strategic Objectives, including the Wealthier & Fairer, Healthier and Safer & Stronger objectives. In particular, healthy and functional soils are essential for wealth creation in forestry and agriculture.
Table 1.1 The 5 Themes of the Greener Objective in relation to soils
Government Strategic Objective - GREENER |
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Climate Change | Climate change will have serious direct consequences not just for Scotland's environment, including its biodiversity, but for its economy and people. Scottish soils are at risk from exacerbated impacts of climate change, as well as potentially contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. |
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Sustainable Places | Healthy communities need healthy places - they need clean air, green spaces and they need places where people want to live and work. Soils in urban greenspace settings and parks are at risk from sealing as a result of inappropriate development. |
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People & Nature | Our relationship with the natural world is at the heart of the concern for a greener Scotland. The protection of Scottish soils in their underpinning role in supporting life will contribute to the delivery of the next phase of the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy. |
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Consumptionn & Production | Energy use and waste disposal can put pressure on soils, for example by increasing pollution or imposing demands for suitable waste disposal sites or land on which to grow food or industrial crops. |
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People & Landscape | Our landscape and our environment have made us what we are as a nation and a people. Landscape is shaped slowly through the interaction of soils, biodiversity and geology with climate, and is often dramatically remodelled by human activities. |
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Scottish Soils - The Resource
1.8 The soil resource of Scotland has developed over many millennia since emergence of the land surface from the last ice age and continues to do so under both natural and human influences 1. Scottish soils are generally in good health and this, in large part, has resulted from the sustainable management systems employed by land managers over a prolonged period.
1.9 There are nevertheless several threats and pressures on Scottish soils which need to be taken seriously in order to prevent soils from degrading. Amongst these, two linked threats, climate change and loss of soil organic matter, are the most significant. Notwithstanding the uncertainties associated with predicting how a future climate will impact upon soils, there is increasing evidence of the need to safeguard the Scottish soil resource for future generations.
1.10 The protection of Scottish soils, as the essential basis for agricultural production, may become particularly important in the context of the increasing debate on global food shortages. Energy efficient and environmentally friendly food production may become a focus for Scotland in the future.
1.11 Unlike air and water, which are widely accepted to be mostly public goods, soils and land are usually in private ownership. Whilst the majority of soils in Scotland are well managed, the costs resulting from those soils that are degraded are often not borne by the immediate land users only, but instead also by society at large and people elsewhere ( e.g. greenhouse gas emission from soils; excessive runoff and poorly managed soils contributing to flooding).
Scottish Soils - The Current Policy Landscape
1.12 A number of different policies currently contribute to soil protection in Scotland, particularly environmental ( e.g., air, water, contaminated land) and agricultural ( e.g., cross-compliance, agri-environment schemes), forestry ( UK Forestry Standard and Forests and Soils Guidelines) and planning.
1.13 The application of Environmental Impact Assessment and Strategic Environmental Assessment to projects/plans/programmes and strategies also provide a means of assessing the impacts on soils.
1.14 However, no legislative or policy tool has specifically been developed with the aim of soil protection. So far policies that cover soils offer protection to a specific function and/or activity, for example, land used for waste recovery and disposal or groundwater protection from agricultural nitrate pollution 5. Current policies that include some aspects of soil protection are spread across many policy areas, but they do not constitute a coherent soil protection policy. This is because they do not cover all soils and all threats to soils.
Government's vision for Soil Protection in Scotland
1.15 Against this background, the draft Scottish Soil Framework was developed with the support from a wide range of relevant stakeholders. This document will, for the first time, set out the vision for soil protection in Scotland, and formally acknowledge the important services soils provide to society.
1.16 Our vision is that
Soils are recognised as a vital part of our economy, environment and heritage to be safeguarded for existing and future generations in Scotland.
Figure 1.1 The Scottish Soil Framework
1.17 The main aim of the Scottish Soil Framework is to promote the sustainable management and protection of soils consistent with the economic, social and environmental needs of Scotland.
1.18 The Framework acts as an overview for soil protection in Scotland (Figure 1.1), bringing together key delivery partners, including Scottish Environment Protection Agency, Scottish Natural Heritage, Forestry Commission Scotland and Historic Scotland, as well as research organisations and other stakeholders working towards the soil outcomes listed outlined in chapter 7.
1.19 These outcomes will be brought about by work under four priority headings. It is clear that achieving the outcomes can only be taken forward through joint effort with the key delivery partners and stakeholders. At the heart of the Framework is the aim to integrate soil protection into relevant policies at an early stage in the policy development cycle. This document does not set out new policy measures that impact on land management. Equally, it does not contain detailed guidance for practitioners. It does, however, raise awareness to improve policy integration by fostering a mainstreaming approach - changing the way existing functions are carried out, rather than adding new ones.
The structure of the Framework
1.20 In Chapter 2 the Framework describes the distinctiveness of Scottish soils and sets out the importance of soils and its functions in Chapter 3 (see fig. 1.2). It then outlines the role of soils in the context of climate change in Chapter 4, before setting out pressures on soils and the current policy framework for soil protection in Chapters 5 and 6. Chapter 7 focuses on the vision and work areas to be taken forward in relation to outcomes.
1.21 This consultation document was developed in close cooperation with a Project Board, which was set up to advise Scottish Government. Information on the Board has been included in Annex A. The Board set up technical working groups, who produced reports on specific aspects of soils protection. Key parts of the nine reports have been included in the consultation papers as supporting material. The reports present a wealth of information which because of their lengths could not be included in the consultation document itself.
Question 1. The Government is proposing the Scottish Soils Framework in order to provide a policy overview and a coordinating vision for future actions on soil protection. Do you agree this is desirable?
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