Meet Project ECHO Leaders: Margherita Caggiano, Re Soil

Upon entering Re Soil’s website, we are greeted with a motto: “No soil, no future”. Despite your foundation’s involvement in a variety of different projects, would you say that most of them revolve around the topic of soil?

Soil is a vital resource. It provides us with nutritious food and other products, as well as with clean water and flourishing habitats for biodiversity. At the same time, soils are one of the world’s largest carbon sinks, can help slow the onset of climate change and make us more resilient to extreme climate events such as droughts and floods. Healthy soils are crucial to tackling climate change and enhancing food security (95% of our food comes from soil). In addition, soils preserve our cultural heritage and are a key part of the landscapes that we all cherish. Simply put, healthy living soils keep us, and the world around us, alive.

Nonetheless, according to the European Soil Observatory (EUSO), about 60 to 70% of soils in the EU are currently likely to be affected by one or more soil degradation processes. Ecosystems in the Mediterranean area are particularly vulnerable, and the region itself is warming 20% faster than the global average (source: UNEP). Ultimately, actions to protect and regenerate soils are urgently needed. In this scenario, in 2020, University of Bologna, Coldiretti, Novamont and Turin Polytechnic decided to join forces and founded the Re Soil Foundation with a clear mission: to enable a step change in soil health and local regeneration. From the outset, all initiatives promoted by the Re Soil Foundation are tied to the indications provided by the EU Mission “A Soil Deal for Europe”.

Re Soil Foundation aims to raise awareness on soil health and on the importance of restoring organic soil matter by supporting the development of efficient organic waste recycling systems, recycling facilities, monitoring tools, and regulations for soil protection. Education, training, and planning play a key role in supporting this R&D strategy, starting from schools and youth, with the aim of creating the conditions for virtuous growth, which starts with the promotion of integrated value chains. Ultimately, all activities carried out by the Re Soil Foundation aim at protecting soils and contribute to the transition towards a sustainable future, the only one possible.

What drew Re Soil to project ECHO, and what is your role?

In our view, ECHO is an ambitious and unique project and the main goals of ECHO: engage, empower and enable citizens to soil protection – perfectly align with the Re Soil mission. As a result, we are thrilled to have the opportunity to participate in such an interesting project and collaborate with this outstanding group of partners. The main Re Soil role in ECHO relates to dissemination and communication activities, with a particular focus on training materials and initiatives for schools. In addition, Re Soil contributes to several other activities. Here are some examples: support the project with the mapping of Citizen Science initiatives for monitoring soil health; participate in the development and coordination of citizen science initiatives and “ECHO Ambassadors” engagement in Italy; identify and engage end-users and assess their interest in data use and collaboration, as well as support the development of policy guidelines on soil and biodiversity. Personally, I attended a couple of workshops with Italian “ECHO Ambassadors” and they were very inspiring.

What is your experience with international projects, and what other European/international initiatives did Re Soil take part in?

Currently, Re Soil is partner of two projects funded under the Horizon Mission Soil program: Prepsoil and ECHO. In line with the indications provided by the EU Mission “A Soil Deal for Europe”, which encourages synergy between projects funded under the Horizon Mission Soil program, we also try our best to collaborate with other projects, especially to the initiatives promoted in Italy. For example, we supported Nati00ns with the organization of their Italian events, participated in a webinar promoted by Humus, and are currently part of the SOILL-startup working group.

ECHO puts a large emphasis on citizen science. How do you make citizens interested in soil?

Soil is a vital resource, but its value is often underestimated due to a lack of knowledge. In this context, one of the EU Mission “A Soil Deal for Europe” objectives aims at improving soil literacy and engaging citizens. Re Soil is committed to raising awareness about soil importance and reaching a broad range of target audiences, such as academia, farmers, policymakers, and citizens. Thinking about citizens, Re Soil works to communicate news, articles and case studies by publishing on a daily basis content that fits the public and is circulated via the Re Soil website, social media, and newsletters. Last year, Re Soil published “Il suolo Italiano al tempo della crisi climatica”, a publication that provides an overview of the soil situation in Italy by analyzing six topics: soil health, SOM, hydropedological instability, degradation and desertification, sealing, contamination. Also, the report includes proposals for soil regeneration. We are committed to engaging students and teachers and developing SOILAB, an educational kit for primary and secondary schools that can be downloaded for free via the Re Soil website. The kit has been downloaded by 7,000 teachers and educators so far. Re Soil also works to promote training initiatives about soils for students and teachers online and in person. An interesting experience, in my view, was “ReelSOIL”: we met art school students and, after a training session about soils, asked them to help us communicate soil importance and issues to teenagers by producing reels for social media. The reels are available here, and I reckon the results are impressive!

Your career path led you all around the world – even to Asia and Australia. With so many choices, what made you invest your time in Re Soil?

I started working in the bioeconomy sector back in 2007, and it’s been an inspiring learning curve. At the same time, I’ve always been interested in exploring new places and learning from other cultures, thus the decision to live and work abroad. Soil protection plays a crucial role in the circular bioeconomy, and I had the chance to observe other countries’ approach to this matter. The opportunity to work for an Italian not-for-profit organization focusing on soil protection appeared to me as a great match with my skills and interests. In my view, Re Soil is an innovative initiative that can contribute to the transition towards healthy soils, and I am glad to be part of it.

Which experiences and skills help you the most in your current job?

My background is in marketing and communication and my role in Re Soil relates to general activities such as coordination, communication, dissemination, education and project management. In addition to my background, I’d say that my experiences working in the bioplastics sector, in the not-for-profit sector and in multicultural environments are instrumental to my current role in Re Soil.

You had many opportunities to compare Europeans with the rest of the world. How do we fare when it comes to awareness of soil health?

We have already mentioned that soil importance is often neglected and this seems to be quite a common situation in the countries I had the chance to visit. In my view, the European Mission “A Soil Deal for Europe” plays a crucial role in increasing soil literacy and awareness among European citizens and, over the past two-three years, we’re noticing a positive trend in this space in Italy that hopefully will continue growing moving forward.

Fingers crossed. Thank you for your time!