Enviro News Asia, Rome — Soil degradation is continuing to worsen in many parts of the world as proven measures to protect and restore soil are not being adopted at the pace and scale needed, according to a new global assessment by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
The findings were presented on August 27, 2026, during the 17th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD COP17). FAO launched the Status of the World’s Soil Resources 2026 report together with new guidance developed with the UNCCD to help countries prevent, reduce and reverse agricultural land and soil degradation.
The assessment found that more than half of the regional and subregional assessments reviewed reported low or very low adoption of proven sustainable soil management practices. About 58 percent recorded a deteriorating trend since 2015, while only around 10 percent reported improvements.
The report draws on scientific literature published between 2015 and 2025 and expertise from 75 countries. It builds on FAO’s first global assessment of soil resources, published in 2015 through the Global Soil Partnership.
FAO identified soil erosion as the most severe and interconnected threat to soil health. Across seven assessed regions, 81 percent of assessments rated erosion management as poor or very poor, while 65 percent reported a deterioration in erosion conditions since 2015.
The pressure on soils is increasing alongside population growth and agricultural expansion. Since 2015, the global population has increased by about 800 million people, while the harvested area of major crops has expanded by approximately 80 million hectares. Urbanization, unsustainable farming practices, industrial activities, conflicts and pollution are also contributing to land degradation.
Soils play a critical role in food security and environmental stability. FAO estimates that soils underpin more than 95 percent of the food consumed globally. They also store and filter water, regulate the climate, support biodiversity and sustain livelihoods.
FAO highlighted several proven approaches that can help address soil degradation, including reduced tillage, integrated nutrient management, crop diversification, cover crops, organic amendments and agroforestry.
However, the agency said the central challenge is scaling up these practices quickly enough and ensuring that farmers and other land users have the knowledge, capacity and incentives required to implement them.
The report outlines five priorities for accelerating progress: strengthening soil governance and legal frameworks; expanding education and capacity development; improving soil monitoring and assessment; strengthening incentives for sustainable soil management; and promoting inclusive, multidisciplinary and multistakeholder decision-making.
FAO and UNCCD also launched the guidance document Living Soils, Productive Lands, Resilient Landscapes, which focuses on avoiding, reducing and reversing agricultural land and soil degradation.
The guidance calls for a shift away from isolated restoration projects toward integrated management of productive landscapes. It also encourages governments to incorporate agricultural land and soil considerations into national development planning, climate strategies, biodiversity frameworks, land degradation neutrality targets and agrifood system transformation.
FAO urged policymakers to treat healthy soils as strategic assets and translate existing scientific knowledge into practical action to protect food production, ecosystems and livelihoods. (*)
