KindHarvest summary: Soil health and biodiversity reinforce one another. Healthy soil supports an immense community of fungi, bacteria, insects, worms and other organisms, while diverse vegetation supplies food, habitat and organic matter that keep those soil communities functioning.
Soil is living infrastructure
The IUCN notes that soil hosts about a quarter of the planet’s biodiversity. This living system cycles nutrients, builds soil structure, stores carbon and improves water infiltration and retention. When soil degrades through deforestation, pollution, overgrazing or damaging agricultural practices, farms lose both productive capacity and resilience.
A landscape example from Guatemala
In Guatemala’s highlands, an IUCN land-health project combines forest rehabilitation in upper watersheds with agroforestry lower in the landscape. More than 3,000 hectares of forest had been rehabilitated when the article was published. Maize and beans are being integrated with fruit crops and native alder trees, which can fix nitrogen and return organic matter through leaf litter.
Benefits travel across the landscape
Tree cover can slow erosion and help watersheds hold water, while crop diversity and permanent vegetation create habitat and spread production risk. Plant litter, roots and animal manure feed soil organisms. The example shows why soil restoration works best when farms, forests and water are managed as connected parts of a landscape.
Related KindHarvest reading
For practical steps at farm level, read Considerations for improving soil health.
Source and credit
This KindHarvest Team research brief is based on an International Union for Conservation of Nature story published 19 May 2022. Read the full IUCN article.