Mediterranean olive groves, which have long been symbols of tradition and culinary heritage, now reveal warning signs of rapidly declining soil health across Europe’s agricultural landscapes. Driven by intensive farming, climate pressures and policy gaps, accelerating soil loss threatens both ecosystem health and rural livelihoods, signalling a critical need for sustainable soil management and adaptive strategies.
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Acknowledgements
The authors received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe project ‘Soil Biodiversity and Functionality of Mediterranean Olive Groves’ (Soil O-live), grant agreement ID 101091255, and from the European Union’s NextGenerationEU project ‘Complex Modelling of Multiple Land Degradation Processes in Europe’ (EUroLanD), grant agreement ID 760051/23.05.2023, code CF 216/29.11.2022, under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan of Romania – Pillar III, Component C9-2022-I8.
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P.B. led the team, conceived the framework of the Comment and wrote the initial draft. F.M., P.S., A.J.M., P.P., K.K. and C.A. contributed knowledge and ideas and helped to develop the final version of the Comment.
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Borrelli, P., Matthews, F., Saggau, P. et al. Unsustainably losing ground. Nat Sustain 8, 986–989 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-025-01628-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-025-01628-3
