SPADES heads to Mission Soil Week
The European Mission Soil Week (EMSW) takes place every year, and brings Mission Soil projects together to deepen understanding of the Horizon Europe Mission 'A Soil Deal for Europe' - Mission Soil. The event plays an important role in raising awareness about the importance of soil health and driving action to protect and restore our soils. This year, the event took place in Aarhus, Denmark in honor of the Danish Presidency. SPADES attended for the second year in a row, connecting with soil projects taking place across the EU. This year, panels and keynotes exchanged on strategies for promoting sustainable land use, how to raise awareness around the role of healthy soils in maintaining sustainable and multifunctional landscapes, and the catalysing potential of the new Soil Monitoring Law.
Our key takeaways from the excellent speakers and panelists:
- Soil is not just a natural resource, it is a legacy. The choices we make today will determine the ground we stand on in the future. The research conducted under Mission Soil is a bridge for action.
- There is a business case for actively desealing soils. Our next step is to monitor and valuate the benefits so we can make municipalities and planners aware.
- For real systemic change, we need holistic blended finance. To do that, we need to stop thinking in months and years, and start thinking in decades.
- To get cities and communities on board, sometimes it helps to start with the easy to solve problems. Quick action can get people on board for initiatives that take a lot longer before you start to see impact.
Multiple speakers addressed the Soil Monitoring Law. For the first time, there is a legal framework for soils across member states with measurable, comparable, and actional indicators. This law will help practitioners to quantify the impact of soil conservation at the local level.
SPADES also took the spotlight in a breakout session, emphasising the role of storytelling in getting people onboard for desealing.
Desealing soils has a role to play in spatial development. We can find funding if we are clear on our objectives. It is a question of framing. If you link depaving to a funded utility like water regulation, the sewer facility might pay for it. But you have to show them the benefits. Because the impact of depaving is poorly monitored, this can be difficult to do. We have to be creative and tell a story.
-SPADES Coordinator Linda Maring
A huge thanks to our hosts the Danish Ministry of Green Transition, Aarhus University, and DG Agriculture. We look forward to taking our learnings to our pilots and project partners.
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