Evolving life sciences and agricultural research approaches may have a decreasing need to access physical resources in future, such as plant seeds or viral material. Information and genetic data may be all that is required for commercial exploitation of biological resources. This POSTnote summarises the challenge this creates for international discussions on the governance of genetic resources and the possible options for addressing these.
Documents to download
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Securing UK Soil Health (345 KB, PDF)
Key points in this POSTnote include:
- Soils filter and store water, support agriculture and other plant and animal communities, and harbour a quarter of the world’s biodiversity.
- Soil is a renewable resource but can be permanently degraded by pressures such as urbanisation or erosion. Degradation of peat soils releases CO2 to the atmosphere.
- Arable soil health can be improved by appropriate cropping and organic matter inputs, but poor management can lead to erosion, degradation of soil fertility and reductions in water-holding capacity.
- The evidence base for soil management has been challenging to develop because soils improve slowly. There is no UK-wide scheme for monitoring soil health.
Documents to download
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Securing UK Soil Health (345 KB, PDF)
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