Issue 612: This study explores participatory fire-management strategies, including landscape values from experts and local people, to strengthen wildfire-prone regions by creating resilient landscapes that protect ecological and social functions.

Issue 611: Industrial heavy metal pollution in a Swedish forest induces resistance to metals in soil microbial communities, but also to tetracycline antibiotics, a new study concludes.

Issue 610: Phosphorous (P) fertiliser from rocks is a limited resource with rising prices. This study investigates ways to enhance P release from biowaste materials to soil, to increase viability of these alternative sources.

Issue 610: The bacterium Xylella fastidiosa (Xfp) has attacked olive trees in Italy since 2013, with severe impacts. However, researchers have now used satellite data to show that bio-fertiliser is proving effective in restoring the agro-ecosystem.

The HCH in EU project, initiated by the European Parliament, evaluated the presence of hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH) in the EU. The project developed an EU-wide inventory of sites where HCH and lindane (a form of HCH) was handled.

Issue 607: A key driver of global biodiversity loss is land use, which involves converting or modifying natural ecosystems to produce biomass for human consumption. A new study explores how land used to supply biomass to Vienna impacts biodiversity.

Issue 606: Hares, deer and foxes regularly visit and forage in unfarmed patches of land under power pylons. A new study offers guidance for conservation managers to enhance the nature value of these habitats further.

Today, the Commission adopted a package of measures for a sustainable use of key natural resources, which will also strengthen the resilience of EU food systems and farming.

Why do we need EU legislation on soils now?