WWF: Claim the ground for this year
“The soil consumption day is reached after less than three months,” criticized WWF soil protection spokeswoman Maria Schachinger. On average, 11.5 hectares of soil are used in this country every day – that is more than four times higher than the official sustainability target.
Missed target by the area of Vienna
“The high level of soil consumption is not only fueling the climate crisis and the extinction of species, but also endangers Austria’s long-term food security,” warned Schachinger. Since the introduction of the sustainability target of 2.5 hectares, the “area consumption has grown almost three times as fast as the population”. All in all, politicians have missed their self-imposed target by around 45,000 hectares in the last 20 years – that’s more than the area of Vienna.
The WWF demands that the soil protection strategy, which is currently being developed under the direction of the Ministry of Agriculture and is to be decided by the federal, state and local governments in autumn, contains a binding upper limit for soil consumption and a concrete catalog of measures.
Since construction is already so far advanced, the WWF estimates that the sustainability target should be reduced to a maximum of one hectare per day by 2030. “This threshold has already disappeared under new roads, supermarkets, parking lots and other soil-eaters on February 1st,” says Schachinger.
80 percent less by 2030
That is why politicians, above all Minister of Agriculture Elisabeth Köstinger (ÖVP), must finally take soil protection seriously,” demanded the WWF expert and set the goal of reducing land use by 80 percent by 2030.
Participatory instructions for action are to be drawn up by autumn for states and municipalities that are responsible for implementing the responsible spatial planning. The core issues are the elaboration of national goals, the development of a nationwide uniform monitoring system and better data for soil consumption as well as the protection of agricultural soils and the sustainable development of natural, green and recreational areas. In addition, an action plan “with concrete activities, milestones and target horizons for implementation up to 2030” is to be drawn up.
Spent and sealed
The Federal Environment Agency defines soil consumption as the loss of biologically productive soil through construction for settlement and transport purposes, but also for intensive recreational uses, landfills, mining areas, power plants and similar intensive uses. Almost half of them (41 percent) are sealed, also covered with a waterproof layer.