Soils are valuable, because they provide the basis for food, because they are habitat for many animals, plants and microorganisms, they protect water resources and store and transform nutrients. Soil are buffering climate and they tell stories and hold treasuries. This incomplete list already shows that soils are multifunctional and not replaceable. They are a limited resource which has to be special considered to be protected.
Because they are threatened in their multifunctionality by pollutants and chemical substances, climate change, sealing and erosion which are caused by any wrong or mal-adapted soil use. Any human activity uses soil in a direct or indirect way. Therefore, everybody is a “soil stakeholder” and has to take over responsibility. Unfortunately, only few people are aware of the relationship between food and soil, not to mention the multiple other functionalities, which are important for the humans and the environment. However, without the awareness how valuable soils are, soil conservation can not be successful. This insight, which means the understanding of soils and their problems, has to be build by education and knowledge transfer. Bada Dioum from Senegal formed the intelligent phrase: “In the end we will conserve only what we love, we will love only what we understand and we will understand only what we are thought” Read More
