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This paper reviews the literature on soil and nature's contributions to people (NCP) around learning and inspiration, physical and psychological experiences, and supporting identities, revealing a range of relationships to imagining, understanding and experiencing soil. Often labelled elsewhere as ‘cultural ecosystem services’, these NCP provide a range of benefits that are mostly non-material, non-consumptive and intangible. The review finds that NCP framings help to highlight how soils have contributed to inspiring learning and creative works, like art; to mental and physical health benefits, such as through recreation and gardening; and to cultural identities and practices, including religious practices and efforts for social justice. Overall, soils have played a large role in human creative endeavours, are the root of significant relationships to the environment and can be conceptualized through key metaphors, ideas and theory as a bridge linking culture and nature together. Yet despite the wide-ranging contributions of soils to these NCP, the literature remains uneven and much more remains to be understood, including how relational values of care and stewardship with soils can be fostered and how attention to the co-produced ‘biosocial’ nature of soil can help improve practices for soil health. This article is part of the theme issue ‘The role of soils in delivering Nature's Contributions to People’. 

Abstract Transformative governance is key to addressing the global environmental crisis. We explore how transformative governance of complex biodiversity–climate–society interactions can be achieved, drawing on the first joint report between the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services to reflect on the current opportunities, barriers, and challenges for transformative governance. We identify principles for transformative governance under a biodiversity–climate–society nexus frame using four case studies: forest ecosystems, marine ecosystems, urban environments, and the Arctic. The principles are focused on creating conditions to build multifunctional interventions, integration, and innovation across scales; coalitions of support; equitable approaches; and positive social tipping dynamics. We posit that building on such transformative governance principles is not only possible but essential to effectively keep climate change within the desired 1.5 degrees Celsius global mean temperature increase, halt the ongoing accelerated decline of global biodiversity, and promote human well-being.