All life on earth owes much to the soil, a great worker in the shadows, as discreet as it is dynamic, as vital as it is complex. The soil is an extremely reactive and sensitive bio-physical-chemical reactor at the interface between rocks, vegetation, air and water. Given the increasing pressures on planet earth and, ultimately, on the ecological functions performed by soils, an integrated environmental and socio-economic approach to soil protection is strongly recommended. We owe it to ourselves to protect soils in a way that is commensurate with the services they provide and in their image, i.e. in a living, sensitive and diverse way.
