FAO's Land and Water Development Division is promoting integrated land management to address the range of natural resources issues (soil, water, biological resources and air) and human management considerations, including inter alia, integrated soil management to address soil physical, chemical and biological considerations. For many years soil and water conservation and management have being addressed in an integrated way, however, in some cases with a focus on physical rather than biological measures. There has also been a tendency to address soil productivity by focusing on physical constraints (e.g. tillage to reduce compaction and enhance permeability) and chemical constraints (e.g. fertilisers and organic matter to replace/compensate plant nutrient deficiencies) without due consideration of the importance of soil organisms and their functions. Over the last two decades with increasing attention to sustainable agriculture and rural development, greater consideration is being paid to integrated ecosystem approaches and to sustaining vital ecological functions including nutrient cycling, carbon sequestration, the hydrological regime and climate change. In this regard FAO is launching a process to promote greater attention to soil biological considerations in its technical and policy advice, materials and capacity building efforts in the area of land and water management.

In its decision V/5, the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) developed and adopted a programme of work on agricultural biodiversity. One of the four main objectives of this programme of work is : to identify management practices, technologies and policies that promote the positive and mitigate the negative impacts of agriculture on biodiversity, and enhance productivity and the capacity to sustain livelihoods.

Under programme element 2.1, the COP agreed to carry out a series of case-studies, in a range of environments and production systems, and in each region: (a) to identify key goods and services provided by agricultural biodiversity, needs for the conservation and sustainable use of components of this biological diversity in agricultural ecosystems, and threats to such diversity; (b) to identify best management practices; and (c) to monitor and assess the actual and potential impacts of existing and new agricultural technologies.

In this regard, in its call for case studies, the COP included, inter alia, experiences on the role of soil and other below-ground biodiversity in supporting agricultural production systems, especially in nutrient cycling.

1. the goods and services provided by certain soil biota, the needs for their conservation and sustainable use in specific agricultural ecosystems, and threats to their diversity;
2. the actual and potential impacts (positive and negative) of traditional and new agricultural technologies on soil bota and their functions and the identification of best management practices; and
3. indicators and methods for monitoring and assessment of soil biota and their functions.

The case studies should highlight the ecological functions provided by soil biota, specifying the roles of various micro-, meso- and macro-biota (including roots, ecosystem engineers, litter transformers, phytophages and parasites, micro-predators and microflora) and their effects under different agricultural systems and practices (e.g. effects on soil function, biodiversity and plant production), including:

• especially nutrient cycling (e.g. microorganisms and plant roots, some soil and litter feeding invertebrates) and crop productivity (e.g. symbiotic relationships with plants and their roots of rhizobia, mycorrhizae, actinomycetes and diazotrophic bacteria); but also,
• decompositionof organic matter (e.g. saprophytic and litter feeding invertebrates (detritivores), fungi, bacteria, actinomycetes and other microorganisms) and/or carbon sequestration (e.g effects of microorganisms and plant roots); and/or,
• hydrological cycling, water regulation and availability (e.g. effects of bioturbating invertebrates and plant roots); and/or
• maintaining or enhancing soil structure (e.g. effect of bioturbating invertebrates and plant roots, mycorrhizae and some other microorganisms on soil aggregation and porosity; and/or,
• suppression of pests, parasites and diseases (e.g. plants, mycorrhizae and other fungi, nematodes, bacteria and other microorganisms, collembola, earthworms, various predators); and/or,
• soil detoxification (especially microorganisms); and/or,
• as sources of food and medicines (e.g. plant roots, insects such as crickets, beetle larvae, ants, termites, earthworms, vertebrates, microorganisms and their by-products).

A number of case studies have already been provided, see those provided in this web site (also submitted to the CBD Secretariat) and http://www.biodiv.org/areas/agro/case-studies.asp#SBIO

Case studies may include, inter alia, examples of :

1. the role(s) or functions of diverse soil organisms and associated biological processes in creating, regulating and maintaining soil fertility and productivity with specific attention to (i) the association among various dimensions of agricultural biodiversity (e.g. among different soil biota and between soil biota and plant roots) and (ii) to local knowledge and management practices;
2. the management of soil organisms in agroecosystems to improve agricultural productivity through: (i) direct interventions (e.g. inoculation of seeds or roots with rhizobia, mycorrhizae, fungi and rhizobacteria for enhanced soil fertility; inoculation of soil or the environment with biocontrol agents, pest or disease antagonists or beneficial fauna) and (ii) indirect practices (e.g. organic inputs, tillage, fertilisers, irrigation, green manures, liming, cropping system design and management) and (iii) modern techniques for genetic control of soil function (e.g. by manipulating resistance to disease, residue and rhizosphere quality);
3. the negative impacts of certain agricultural practices (e.g. misuse or overuse of tillage, organic and inorganic fertilisers, pesticides, irrigation or flooding) in terms of loss of soil biodiversity, soil and environmental degradation (i.e., depletion or loss of soil fertility and its physical and biological components, contamination of surface and ground water) and declining land productivity with specific attention to ecosystems under change (i.e. through intensification);
4. how biological management of soil fertility can be integrated profitably into the rest of the farming enterprise (including cost/benefit analysis);
5. how biological management techniques can serve to (i) conserve biologically important populations and species and/or (ii) restore degraded ecosystems;
6. the use of participatory processes to promote the assessment, management and conservation of soil biodiversity, illustrating the role of various stakeholders, including the involvement of the private sector.