Soils and Stones Report: Sustaining Our Future by Influencing Change in the UK and Beyond

According to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification1, “Every 5 seconds the equivalent of one football field of soil is eroded, it can take up to 1,000 years to produce 2 to 3 cm of soil with over 33% of the earth’s soil already degraded”. Soils and stones are essential as topsoil for food production and as materials used in industry, agriculture, and land-use developments. The challenges in sustainably managing these resources and habitats of the biodiverse flora and fauna species that rely on the land are stark. Action to provide protection of these resources from poor human practices and the increasingly extreme impacts of climate change is needed urgently. As an umbrella body, Society for the Environment (SocEnv) is a partnership of 24 professional bodies from across a wide range of sectors. This makes SocEnv excellently placed to facilitate cross-sector collaboration and, in August 2019, SocEnv sought to establish a specialist task group composed of interested Chartered Environmentalists (CEnvs) from working professionals and members of SocEnv Licensed Members to report on these issues. The task group provided focus by sharing experiences and developing consensus on common risks, issues and opportunities. Bringing together environmental professionals from sectors including engineering, construction, forestry, and agricultural management, the group was tasked with producing a report within an 18-month time frame, enabling fellow professionals to take on these challenges by identifying links to guidance and resources that could aid the development and improvement of best environmental practice for those working with soil and stones in the UK and beyond