Securing Scotland’s soils in a changing climate

Scotland’s soils are a fundamental part of the country’s natural wealth and wellbeing. Healthy soils support essential ecosystem services such as carbon storage, food production, water management and biodiversity. They are also essential for enabling nature-based solutions for challenges such as climate change and flooding.

However, unlike water, air and biodiversity, Scotland has no soil-specific policy to protect, restore and enhance this vital resource. Instead, soils are addressed across a range of nature-based policies, with limited overarching governance. The makes the coordinated implementation of sustainable soil management more challenging.

An initial framework to consolidate these challenges was published by ClimateXChange in 2025. Soil Route Map for Scotland outlined introductory actions to improve soil security across Scottish landscapes while supporting the delivery of wider nature-based policies. It provided six overarching objectives – Lead, Protect, Restore, Enhance, Mobilise and Evidence – to address risks to soils and help achieve the vision in Scotland’s third National Adaptation Plan of ‘thriving soils for Scotland’s communities, economy and environment’.

The second phase of this work has resulted in:

• A technical report which builds on the core themes identified in the 2025 route map. For each theme, this report outlines the high-level options for action, an indication of how ready they are to begin, and the key policy areas they could support.
• A policy brief to summarise the report’s key points.

Expand the arrows for the ‘Options for action’ under each theme

Theme 1: Soil sealing and management of soils in construction

• Develop Scotland-specific guidance to support soil protection, restoration and enhancement in Local Development Plans (LDPs)
• Expand guidance for identifying and protecting carbon-rich soils
• Develop targeted guidance for conducting Land Capability for Agriculture (LCA) assessments
• Review and develop guidance of soils within EIAs
• Review opportunities to better link the sustainable management of soils during development projects to support wider environmental net gains
• Develop procedures which promote the sustainable use and reuse of Scottish soils

Theme 2: Soil compaction and the physical degradation of Scottish soils

• Develop cross-sector guidance on soil compaction and soil physical degradation
• Explore opportunities for soil compaction to be identified and alleviated through existing programmes
• Update guidance and tools informing the risk of Scottish soils to physical degradation and compaction

Theme 3: Chemical and biological soil health

• Support the identification and remediation of contaminated land
• Review and further develop guidance to support nutrient management planning in agriculture
• Develop research and guidance on the application or soil amendments for nutrient management
• Monitor progress of the Whole Farm Plan

Theme 4: Soils in the private sector

• Continued support for peatland restoration and woodland creation
• Review policies for aligning a soil monitoring framework with environmental sustainability reporting standards
• Review policies for aligning a soil monitoring framework with nature-based frameworks
• Develop guidance on appropriate use and limitations of soil metrics in corporate reporting and verification
• Review the guidance and incentivise further mobilisation of soil protection, restoration and enhancement through the adoption of financial frameworks

Theme 5: Soil monitoring and metrics

• Review strategic objectives in the soil framework
• Support the design of a monitoring framework based on the integration of data sets from different sources
• Develop research to provide robust scientific data to support the use of novel indicators in soil monitoring
• Review the potential for collation and use of supplementary data
• Support Scotland’s Soil Website to host soil data, guidance and tools

For further information, please read the full report.

If you require the report or annex in an alternative format, such as a Word document, please contact info@climatexchange.org.uk or 0131 651 4783.