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Soil Restoration and Monitoring Guidelines

1.2 Forest degradation and its impact on soil health

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Despite the importance of forest conservation, extensive degradation continues. Globally, 420 million hectares of forest were lost to deforestation between 1990 and 2020, and although the global deforestation rate have recently declined, an estimated 10 million hectares were still lost annually between 2015-2020 (FAO, 2022). 

In Europe however, forest cover is steadily increasing, and recent management strategies have been somehow effective in improving the overall forest conditions, such as an increased in deadwood volume, forest area, biomass volume, and overall productivity. Nonetheless, forest habitat degradation remains ongoing proxied by increasing defoliation (FOREST EUROPE, 2020), foliar nutrient imbalances (Jonard et al., 2015) and decreasing tree cover density and species richness of threatened birds (EEA, 2024; FOREST EUROPE, 2020; Maes et al., 2023). This aboveground degradation is mirrored belowground or could potentially be driven by belowground degradation. Soil acidity levels have remained constant (too acidic), soil nitrogen levels remain excessive despite decreases in deposition (FOREST EUROPE, 2020; Van Groenigen et al., 2017), and soil organic carbon keeps decreasing (Maes et al., 2023). Soil degradation - whether chemical (e.g., acidification, eutrophication, nutrient depletion), physical (e.g., erosion, compaction), or biological (e.g., loss of biodiversity) - is weakening soil fertility, impairing nutrient and water cycling, reducing carbon sequestration capacity, and undermining forest resilience and sustainability. Overall soil health is declining on a European scale (European Soil Data Centre, 2025). These trends are primarily driven by threats such as anthropogenic pressures (including those that affect belowground ecosystem such as eutrophication, acidification and overexploitation) in addition to severe climatic events (e.g. drought and wildfires), new pests and diseases, and other environmental disturbances (Ameray et al., 2021; FAO, 2020; IPBES et al., 2018; Mäkipää et al., 2023; Scanes, 2018). In summary, healthy soils are the foundation of ecosystem restoration, and their continued decline underscores the urgent need for integrated forest-soil strategies that explicitly prioritize soil health (Maes et al., 2023).