Last changed: 9/03/12
Soil needs air to breathe just like our skin does. The bad news is that in Europe fertile soil is lost through soil sealing, due to building or road construction for example, at a rate of 275 hectares per day. This adds up to an area the size of Cyprus every ten years. Two current reports by the European Commission illustrate just how important soil protection is.
At the invitation of UBA , an international group of scientists and policy-makers met in September 2011 to adopt the “Berlin Call for Action”, which stresses the fact that there is no life without fertile soils and calls for more decisive action at international level to combat avoidable losses in soil fertility. To this end, it states that it is essential to include sustainable soil management in the agenda of the Rio+20 Conference in 2012.
The first nationwide evaluation of soil data to derive the vulnerability of subsoils to compaction has been carried out in a research project sponsored by UBA. 30% of our agricultural crop land is so susceptible to compaction that the pressure from agricultural machinery is likely to have a lasting impact on soil all the way into subsoils.
Since copper as a heavy metal is non-degradable, repeated and long-term application of copper fungicides results in the accumulation of copper in soil. This report reviews existing studies on the effects of copper accumulation on soil organisms as observed in the laboratory and in the field. The report accentuates UBA’s fundamental concern to the use of copper fungicides in plant protection.
No additional administrative burden for Germany is expected on account of the proposed EU Soil Framework Directive. The anticipated regulations will not lead to significant changes in existing German soil protection law.
Mankind is producing 23 hectares of desert per minute, according to UN data. Improper cultivation is often the cause, even though we rely on fertile soil to grow 90 percent of our food. “We have neglected our soil for much too long“, said UBA’s Vice-President Holzmann on World Soil Day on 5 December 2011. International efforts as well as clear and binding rules are needed to protect our soil effectively.
The traveller interested in shell limestone, bogs or variegated sandstone can look forward to an exciting new guide: the updated travel guide by UBA entitled Die Böden Deutschlands. Whether glacial moraines in Bavaria or ice age profiles in Brandenburg, the volume offers tips on walking tours to many interesting types of soil in Germany’s 16 federal states and provides details on their geographic characteristics.
UBA has translated into English a position paper of the Federal/State Working Group on Soil Protection about the consideration of natural attenuation in remediating contaminated sites. The position paper details the knowledge and approaches existing in Germany and provides practical recommendations.
Would you like to know how much CO2 or waste a certain industrial operator in Germany produces? Since 2008 large industrial operators have been obliged to report on their pollutant emissions to the air, water, and soil, on pollutants in their effluent, and on the volumes of the waste they dispose of. As of 3 June 2009, this information is accessible to the public via the Internet in the German Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (PRTR).