The Soil Atlas presents data and facts about the importance and condition of land, soils and arable land. In numerous graphics and text contributions, it provides an up-to-date insight into the condition and endangerment of the soils on which we live.

Without healthy soils, it is not possible to produce healthy food.
But soils do not just produce food: they do many other things too. They filter rainwater and turn it into clean drinking water. They regulate the climate, for after the oceans, the soil is the world’s largest carbon sink: it stores more carbon than all the world’s forests put together.

And soils are teeming with life! A handful of earth contains more organisms than the planet’s entire human population. Two-thirds of all species live hidden below the surface.

Global demand for food, fodder and biofuels is on the rise. So too are land prices. In many regions, the struggle for secure land rights is a struggle for survival for individuals and communities. The global significance of soils demands global responses – responses that take the human rights of land users seriously.

Podcast: The floor atlas to hear
Soil Atlas: Floor as commodity (1/3)
Podcast episode
Soil is becoming an increasingly scarcer. Every day in Germany 55 hectares are returned for housing or traffic areas. The solar boom also makes arable land more scarc and land is becoming more and more commodities. Soil speculation is increasing rapidly and buying and lease prices for arable land explode.

Soil Atlas: The fertilizer crisis (2/3)
Podcast episode
Chemical inputs – such as fertilizers and pesticides – disrupt soil health in the long term, and the carbon footprint of artificial fertilizers is also devastating. Nevertheless, more and more mineral fertilizers are being used in many regions of the world to increase crop yields at short notice. But what is the real ecological price we pay for it?

Soil Atlas: Healthy soils - blown away from the wind? (3/3)
Podcast episode
The fertile soils in which our foods thrive are becoming an increasingly scarc asset. Not only is farmland for road construction and settlements being sealed, but also the nutrient-rich humus layer on the fields is also increasingly fading. Politicians in Berlin and Brussels now want to address land health, but are the measures enough?

A reference to The Soil Atlas 2015 presents data and facts about the importance and condition of land, soils and arable land in Germany, Europe and worldwide. 2015 is the International Year of Soils. This Soil Atlas shows what can succeed and why the soil should concern us all.