The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework is a global call to action to halt biodiversity loss, with specific targets aimed at conserving and sustainably managing soil biodiversity in forest and agricultural systems. Soil microbial biodiversity is fundamental to ecosystem health, productivity and resilience, yet remains largely invisible in land use decision-making. 

Although numerous legal instruments and ecosystem-based land use plans aim to safeguard biodiversity, regionally specific strategies for assessing soil biodiversity status and outcomes are lacking. As BC’s land management policies evolve to emphasize ecosystem-based approaches, there is a growing need to monitor whether these strategies are achieving their intended biodiversity and sustainability outcomes, particularly in ways that matter to local communities.

Working with an Indigenous community and local partners who support sustainable land use, this project will co-develop a BC Soil Biodiversity Status Report, a Technical Method- a standardized approach for assessing soil health- and a scalable, easy-to-use web platform for monitoring soil biodiversity. The team will use genomic tools to map and track soil microbial diversity across forest and agricultural systems and aims to create regionally specific indicators that support biodiversity valuation, restoration and adaptive management.

These outputs will guide soil biodiversity objectives and standards for key ecosystems, empower decision makers to co-inform land management and policy and strengthen biodiversity stewardship at local scales. Ultimately, this work will tie into and advance provincial, national and international biodiversity targets ensuring soil biodiversity is visible, valued and actively protected within broader ecosystem health and sustainability frameworks.