Agriculture occupies a substantial proportion of European land, and consequently plays an important role in maintaining natural resources and cultural landscapes, a precondition for other human activities in rural areas. Unsustainable farming practices and land use, including mismanaged intensification and land abandonment, have an adverse impact on natural resources. Having recognised the environmental challenges of agricultural land use, in 2007 the European Parliament requested the European Commission to carry out a pilot project on ‘Sustainable Agriculture and Soil Conservation through simplified cultivation techniques’ (SoCo). The project originated from close cooperation between the Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development (DG AGRI) and the Joint Research Centre (JRC). The JRC’s Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS) coordinated the study and implemented it in collaboration with the Institute for Environment and Sustainability (IES). The overall objectives of the SoCo project are: (i) to improve the understanding of soil conservation practices in agriculture and their links with other environmental objectives; (ii) to analyse how farmers can be encouraged, through appropriate policy measures, to adopt soil conservation practices; and (iii) to make this information available to relevant stakeholders and policy makers EU-wide. In order to reach a sufficiently detailed level of analysis and to respond to the diversity of European regions, a case study approach was applied. Ten case studies were carried out in Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom between spring and summer 2008. The case studies cover: • a screening of farming practices that address soil conservation processes (soil erosion, soil compaction, loss of soil organic matter, contamination, etc.); the extent of their application under the local agricultural and environmental conditions; their potential effect on soil conservation; and their economic aspects (in the context of overall farm management); • an in-depth analysis of the design and implementation of agri-environmental measures under the rural development policy and other relevant policy measures or instruments for soil conservation;