An article in The Guardian’s FAO Partner Zone looks at how soil – which may not be as visually striking as a green forest or appear as vital as fresh water – is just as important to sustaining life on earth.

“The quality of our food very much depends on the quality of our soil,” says Ronald Vargas, Soils and Land Management Officer with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

About a third of the planet’s soils are facing moderate to severe degradation. Poor farming practices deplete soil nutrients faster than they can form, leading to loss of soil fertility and degradation. Globally, 50,000 square kilometres of soil are lost each year.

With 2015 dedicated by the United Nations as the International Year of Soils, the article focuses on 5 reasons why soil must be treasured:

1. Healthy soil feeds the world. All plant and animal life relies on soil.
2. Soil is a finite resource. It cannot be recovered within a human lifespan.
3. Soil can mitigate climate change. It constitutes the greatest pool of terrestrial organic carbon, more than double the amount stored in vegetation.
4. Soil is alive, teeming with life. More organisms are contained in one tablespoon of healthy soil than there are people on the planet. These include insects, mites, worms, bacteria, fungi and protozoans.
5. Investing in sustainable soil management makes economic and environmental sense. For example, the Quesungual slash and mulch agroforestry system developed through an FAO project in Honduras has increased productivity and income for the region’s farmers.

Read the full story: Five reasons why soil is key to the planet’s sustainable future

Find out more about the World Agroforestry Centre’s work in soil health: Land health decisions

See also: Global Soil Partnership