While recent policy interventions (such as the Good Agricultural and Environment Condition requirements of the CAP, and the EU Soil Thematic Strategy) have reduced the rate of soil loss in the EU by an average of 9.5 % overall, and by 20 % for
arable lands, the study finds that four million hectares of EU
croplands have unsustainable rates of soil loss (more than 5 tonnes per hectare per year).