Soil atlas: Facts and figures about earth, land and fields.

Without healthy soils, it is not possible to produce healthy food. But soils do not just produce food: they
do many other things too. They filter rainwater and turn it into clean drinking water. They regulate the climate, for after the oceans, the soil is the world’s largest carbon sink: it stores more carbon than all the world’s forests put together. And soils are teeming with life! A handful of earth contains more organisms than the planet’s entire human population. Two-thirds of all species live hidden below the surface.2015 is the International Year of Soils. This Soil Atlas shows what can succeed and why the soil should concern us all.Global demand for food, fodder and biofuels is on the rise. So too are land prices. In many regions, the struggle for secure land rights is a struggle for survival for individuals and communities. The global significance of soils demands global responses – responses that take the human rights of land users seriously.