Changes at "Touching the Soil: Citizen Soil Science for Rural Regeneration in Aragón, Spain."
Body (English)
-Touching the Soil: Citizen Soil Science for Rural Regeneration in Aragón, Spain.- +Summary of the challenge
- +Aragón faces soil erosion, pollution, and habitat loss, exacerbated by climate change. 30% of its soil is at risk, yet rural communities lack tools to advocate for sustainable land use. Without intervention, degradation will displace already declining rural communities and amplify climate vulnerabilities. Here, conventional gardening and agricultural methods (e.g. leaving soil bare), urbanization, and intensive farming have degraded soils, threatening biodiversity, water filtration, and rural livelihoods, leading more and more to desertification.
- +Detailed description
- +As measures to address complex climate change problems are often costly but not sufficiently successful, simple solutions are often favored over complex technologies in small communities. This also unleashes a "world of climate experimentation," where Citizen Soil Science can be seen as an example. I sugest empowering rural communities in Teruel for soil literacy. To do so, the challenge is to translate a proven urban Citizen Soil Science methodology to the rural context. Unlike top-down land management, participants can learn to assess soil health by just using the senses and low-cost tools (vinegar, jars, and mobile apps). Through participatory workshops and co-creation, the aforementioned challenges can be addressed and regenerative practices can be found together. The methodology comes from the Open Soil Atlas (OSA), of which I am a part. Aiming to identify uncommon green spaces, assess the quality of the soil, and engage with people all over the city, their methods were developed as a participatory "open-source co-learning centre" for citizens (funded as a half-year pilot by Horizon in 2021). In workshops, citizens are taught to conduct soil tests, record observations, analyze data, and draw conclusions themselves. Through the exchange, residents’ awareness of soil topics such as unsealing, planting possibilities, heat islands, etc., is also promoted. The idea of the workshops was not only to raise awareness among citizens but also to generate a healthy community around healthy soils. The gathered soil data gets collected in a digital GIS application, which then generates a high-resolution soil map. While making that data available to everyone, citizens are empowered and given back literacy about their co-created data. The original idea for OSA came from the grassroots community Feld Food Forest. With the aim to establish a Food Forest, based on social and ecological permaculture principles, they had difficulties finding a suitable, accessible location in the center of Berlin. They realized that the required data of the urban soil was inaccessible to the public, and they wanted to drive regenerative transitions.
- +Which SoilTribes priority area(s) does your challenge address?
- +Soil Democracy
- +Territorial Justice
- +Commons Stewardship
- +Regenerative Transitions
- +How does your challenge respond to the selected SoilTribes priority area(s)?
- +The challenge responds to SoilTribes' four priority areas by creating a participatory model where citizens become stewards of their land. - Soil Democracy and Soil Literacy: Transfer data-collection tools to rural citizens. Decentralizing soil knowledge, equipping rural communities in Aragón with accessible tools to collect and interpret soil data, and transforming them into active participants in land-use decisions. Thus, democratizing soil sciences and empowering citizens to understand, evaluate, and make informed land decisions. - Territorial Justice: Addressing inequities by equipping depopulated areas with advocacy resources. Educating and empowering marginalized populations facing soil degradation to advocate for equitable policies and challenge unsustainable practices. - Commons Stewardship: Embody Commons Stewardship through its open-source platform, where co-created soil maps and remediation strategies become shared resources for collective action. - Regenerative Transitions: Building networks and bridging scientific and local knowledge—workshops train participants in alternative soil restoration methods, fostering a shift from exploitation to long-term ecological stewardship. Co-designs arid-adapted solutions (e.g. techniques for water storage in exposed soil). Together, these approaches create a replicable framework where soil health becomes a driver of social empowerment, ecological resilience, and community-led governance.
- +Which EU Soil Mission goal(s) does your challenge contribute to?
- +Prevent erosion
- +Reduce soil pollution / enhance restoration
- +Conserve soil organic carbon
- +Reduce desertification
- +Enhance soil biodiversity
- +Challenge typology
- +Seeds (small, replicable initiatives)
- +Expected outputs / actions
- +Awareness-raising / communications
- +Creative or cultural events
- +Capacity-building (training, guides, mentorship)
- +Policy or advocacy initiatives
- +Participatory processes
- +Prototyping or technical testing
- +Who is involved or affected by the challenge?
- +Organizations and regional agencies collaborate to engage participants and to expand in the region. The co-design involves citizens, local farmers, and local businesses of the communities.
- +Where is your challenge located?
- +Oliete, Teruel (Aragón), Spain. To be expanded in the Teruel region.
- +Which SoilTribes pillar(s) are you connected to?
- +Civil Society
- +Business: Social Economy & Cooperative Sector
- +What public policies or institutional frameworks does your challenge engage with or seek to change?
- +The idea aligns with EU Soil Monitoring Law and Aragón’s Rural Development Strategy. Also, it advocates for integrating citizen data into CAP (Common Agricultural Policy) reforms. Without intervention, degradation will displace rural communities and amplify climate vulnerabilities.
- +How do you imagine the Bootcamp will benefit your initiative — and others?
- +The bootcamp will accelerate the applicants ideas by refining OSA’s citizen-science model for rural contexts, particularly in scaling workshops and securing upscaling for Aragón’s soil network. The applicant aims to learn from peers about engaging policymakers, upscale the idea, and adapt tools for arid ecosystems, key gaps in the current approach. In return, the applicant can offer tested methodologies: the open-source soil mapping platform, low-cost testing kits, and a replicable framework for turning data into advocacy. For SoilTribes, this means a transferable model to empower marginalized communities elsewhere, combining grassroots mobilization with EU soil health targets. Together, we can prototype solutions that bridge science, justice, and regeneration—like co-designing a "Soil Peer" training guide for small communities or aligning local data with the EU Soil Monitoring Law.
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