Over the last decade, the importance of healthy and carbon rich soils has increasingly been recognized at a political level. Different policy, regulatory and market-based instruments have been developed at national or regional level with the aim to foster the protection or regeneration of soil resources, and in particular to support the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices that enhance soil organic carbon. This session aims to explore different approaches and recent developments regarding political, regulatory and market-based instruments from countries across the temperate climate zone. It will discuss success stories and barriers for implementation, while taking into account the various objectives and conditions, the different approaches shall address.