Soil4Life Campaign
- Ewan Cheyne
- Dec 13, 2023
- 2 min read
"The European Union is losing 970 million tonnes of soil per year due to water erosion, an amount equivalent to a one metre-depth loss of soil from an area the size of the city of Berlin or enough to cover an area twice the size of Belgium with one centimetre of soil."
[The new assessment of soil loss by water erosion in Europe Panos Panagosa, Pasquale Borrelli, Jean Poesenc, Cristiano Ballabioa, Emanuele Lugatoa, Katrin Meusburger, Luca Montanarella, Christine Alewell. European Commission Joint Research Centre, Institute for Environment and Sustainability]
Soil4Life is a campaign spear-headed by the CCIVS which aims to raise awareness of the importance of soil in the fight against climate change. Concordia is actively involved in this important environmental campaign, travelling to France to take part in this year’s training.
From 14th-19th October 2019, CCIVS hosted a training on soil protection and management in Vaunières, France. The participants learnt about the fascinating, living soil web and how they can restore and regenerate soils in their diverse contexts. The course addressed rural as well as urban issues and took place in participatory and non-formal learning environment. Both participants and trainers got their aim hands dirty making compost and natural fertilizers, while exploring skills like reading the landscape, sharing ideas, innovations and inspirations drawn from the diverse group of chosen participants.
During the event, each participant created an action plan to implement with their local organisations after the training. These included volunteer projects, community gardens and local awareness raising campaigns.
A Network of Soil Ambassadors has been established to share and connect these local actions and forms part of the creation of the Soil4Life Manifest. A first draft of the Soil4Life Manifest will be collectively created during the 4 training days, and the final manifest will be delivered in March 2022 to the European Commission and presented during the International Convention to take place in UNESCO, Paris.
Head to CCIVS website to find out more.
Read the SOIL4LIFE blog here.
