Rules beneath our feet

Rules beneath our feet

Soil Governance Across Levels: A Multi-Level System

Soil governance operates across several levels. Decisions about soil rarely rest in one place; they are shaped by international agreements, European frameworks, national legislation, regional planning, local land-use decisions, and the everyday work of institutions and land managers.

This is known as multi-level governance. It means that soil protection depends on connections between different levels of decision-making. These connections can be:

• vertical, linking international, European, national, regional, and local levels;
• horizontal, linking sectors such as agriculture, water, biodiversity, climate, construction, spatial planning, and public health.

This coordination is necessary because soils are managed locally, but the effects of soil management often extend across landscapes, river basins, food systems, and climate systems.