Linking Alpine Soil Knowledge for Sustainable Ecosystem Management and Capacity Building
Alpine soils perform key ecosystem services (ESS) that enable human well-being, ecosystem functioning and contribute to the biodiversity. The importance of sustainable Alpine soil management is being recognised yet insufficiently implemented mainly due to its crosscutting function, fragmented governance structures, diverse sectoral needs, lack of targeted soil information and applicable management tools. The project aims to overcome these gaps by linking Alpine soil knowledge, end-users and experts, elaborate sectoral soil information, create best-case practices and promote soil management. By this, it enhances the applicability of the Alpine Convention Soil Conservation Protocol (SCP) and contributes to the protection, conservation and connectivity of Alpine ecosystems. The project innovatively links expertise and governance on various levels and sectors to jointly develop and implement sustainable Alpine land management policies / strategies. _x000D_
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a) The Multi-stakeholder Alpine Soil Partnership joins forces of experts and authorities to introduce soil protection in land management practices and promotes Alpine-wide cooperation on soil protection & ESS management. _x000D_
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b) The Alpine Soil Information and Decision Support Platform encourages stakeholders from cross-cutting sectors like forestry, agriculture, spatial planning to benefit from the first Alps-wide soil information system that includes an expert Soil Consultancy Service, sectoral best-case practices etc. in order to integrate them into local and regional management and planning. _x000D_
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The outputs, built on common interest of public authorities (e.g. soil, environmental protection, planning,) as well as Alpine and EU org. (AC, EUSALP AG 6,EC-JRC), are integrated to ESDAC, linked to international organisations or NGOs for durability after the project. Alpine soil protection is pushed by bottom-up policy and actions that will be transferred to (trans)-national levels, as required by AC SCP and EUSALP.