Opening Event – International Year of Soil 2015

On the occasion of the World Soil Day on December 5, 2014 the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) in cooperation with the German Federal Environment Agency (UBA), theDeutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and the IASS will host the official opening event of the IYoS in Berlin. The United Nations General Assembly has declared 2015 the International Year of Soils (IYoS). At the same time, the year 2015 offers several important opportunities to link soils to the broader sustainability community and support their recognition for sustainable development. The opening event with the title “Germany’s soil use – global implications, global responsibilities” will use this framing to put Germany’s contributions towards healthy soils and responsibly managed land into a wider angle. To this end, we will invite a broad range of stakeholders and experts to discuss the impacts of Germany’s soil use in Germany as well as in the world and touch upon topics like virtual land imports and the increase of soil sealing. Participants will link up those problem areas to the national, European and international level and ask what is already being done to manage our soils sustainably and how can we enlarge our engagement given the various opportunities that the year 2015 will offer.

World Soil day celebrates the importance of soil as a critical component of the natural system and as a vital contributor to the human commonwealth through its contribution to food, water and energy security and as a mitigator of biodiversity loss and climate change. It is celebrated particularly by the global community of 60 000 soil scientists charged with responsibility of generating and communicating soil knowledge for the common good. many events focussed on increasing the public awareness of soil and its contribution to humanity and the environment.