TESTING TIMES

While the world is trying to identify uniform tests to measure soil biodiversity, it still needs investment and infrastructure to make them available to all

IN JANUARY this year, the world took the first step towards standardising the measurement of soil biodiversity when the International Network on Soil Bio-diversity (NETSOB) submitted a proposal on the same to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Established by FAO in April 2021, NETSOB comprises 400 scientists, researchers, decision-makers and other stakeholders. One of its core functions is to develop practical indicators relevant to farmers and scientists across diverse landscapes and climates.

In 2022, at the 15th Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the world agreed to safeguard 30 per cent of the Earth's lands and waters by 2030. Alongside the agreement came the adoption of plan of action 2020-23 for the International Initiative for the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Soil Biodiversity, with a clear goal to devise feasible soil biodiversity indicators linked to critical ecosystem functions and services. CBD gave FAO the job of proposing the set of soil biodiversity measurement indicators that can be used across countries.

"We have come up with what we think is a good way forward. The board and the network of scientists have approved it. It is going back to FAO and then to the representatives at CBD for final approval," says Jacob Parnell, a soil biodiversity specialist at FAO and a member of NETSOB. There are potentially hundreds of different measurements that are being researched. "We would like to narrow them down and come up with the best indicators for soil biodiversity that can be used everywhere, regardless of the soil type, climate or landscape," says Parnell.