The first award of the Glinka World Soil Prize
The first ever Prize was awarded on WSD 2016 to Agustín Codazzi Geographic Institute of Colombia
The Glinka is held to encourage dynamic change makers to develop and implement new concepts of soil protection. Until mid-September, GSP Partners nominated candidates, nine of which were shortlisted for the prize sponsored by the Russian Federation. The award ceremony took place on 5 December 2017, at the FAO Headquarters in Rome. The Laureate was invited to join the official celebrations and delivered a keynote presentation.
The 2016 winner is Agustín Codazzi Geographic Institute of Colombia (IGAC), champion within a generation of stakeholders and soil field-work practitioners. IGAC conducts soil surveys, carries out soil resource inventories, coordinates the Colombian Spatial Data Infrastructure, and trains professionals from all over the world. By placing geography at the forefront of advanced geographical research and modeling programs, IGAC is rapidly modernizing geospatial technologies in Latin America.
True to its mission, in less than three years IGAC unveiled a study that shed light on Colombian soils, their morphology and complex economic and social context. “Soils and Lands of Colombia” has been featured by news outlets worldwide. A team of 18 chemists, physicists, forestry agronomists, geographers and mineral specialists was behind this collection of geographic, cartographic, agronomic, cadastral, and geospatial data that will dramatically change the way governments and businesses will work in the coming decades.
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