Geodiversity describes the combined spatial variability of soils, geology and waterways within all landscapes, ranging from lowlands to high mountains. Geodiversity is essential for human wellbeing (e.g. soils, minerals, rare earths and fresh water), but it is currently insufficiently managed and not well considered in a global policy context. We highlight the need to develop a system to monitor, regulate and manage geodiversity for a sustainable stewardship of our planet, and we propose a set of essential geodiversity variables (EGVs) that would allow the monitoring of geodiversity change. The paper is available here and a news item here.