In recent years, more attention has been paid to local knowledge for its important contribution to the design of strategies for sustainable management of natural resources. The importance of soil as a key component os sustainability in agricultural landscapes has led to an increasing demand for indicators that would allow the monitoring of changes in soil quality, as well as the impact on the provision of soil-mediated ecosystem services resulting from changes in land use intensificaiton of agriculture.

The development of an 'hybrid' knowledge base,, through participatory integration of local and technical knowledge on indicators of soil qulaity, represents and effort to better understand teh complexity of decision-making in natural resource management aimed at maintaining or improving the provision of soil-mediated ecosystem services.