Law No. LP303/2025 “On the use, conservation and protection of soil”.

This Law regulates activities regarding the use, conservation, improvement, evaluation of bioproductive capacity and protection of soils in order to ensure their sustainable use. The provisions of this Law shall be applied by land owners in the category of agricultural land, regardless of the type of ownership. The scope of the Law is: (a) protecting the soil against the action of water and wind (includes a set of works to prevent and combat soil erosion); (b) identification of areas of natural and/or anthropogenic risk to desertification, compaction, destructuring, reduction of organic matter and nutrient content, reduction of biodiversity, causing and/or intensifying landslides, in order to reduce them; (c) reducing or alleviating moisture deficit (includes land irrigation); (d) evacuation of excess moisture in the soil and its reduction (includes hydrological organization, land drainage and desiccation); and (e) soil rehabilitation (includes construction and exploitation waterworks, selective stripping and covering works of damaged or degraded land, as well as works to improve holomorphic and silted soil). The general principles regulating relations regarding the use, conservation and protection of soil provide for the sustainable use of soil, the conservation and prevention of their degradation, as well as their improvement, rehabilitation and protection. Tenants of agricultural land have the following obligations: (a) to prevent soil degradation and do not allow its deterioration; (b) to ensure the application of special conservation measures for forests and forest strips with soil protection functions, located on sloping lands, at risk and/or affected by landslides and erosion; (c) to ensure the rational use, organization and arrangement of grasslands depending on their regeneration and protection capacity, as well as the improvement and prevention of soil degradation; (d) to notify the local public administration authorities and the authorities responsible for environmental protection regarding accidents or activities that affect soil quality, in the context of soil resource management and protection; (e) to undertake soil protection measures within the framework of environmentally friendly agricultural practices; (f) to maintain and improve soil fertility and other useful properties of the soil by implementing scientifically based crop rotations, by rational management of fertilizers, by applying gentle methods of soil cultivation, as well as by other measures for its rational use and protection; and (g) to use land according to the territorial organization and planning projects.