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Need for targeted research to resolve the conflict between soil protection and soil use
Conference on Soil and Land Management in the Context of National and International Challenges
Soil protection alone is too narrow a concept for sustainable soil and land use both in this country and in other parts of the world. The big challenges for our society such as climate change and food security call for considerably more broadly-based methods of resolution. To this end, acatech experts and representatives from science, industry and politics came together for the "Soil and Land Management in the Context of National and International Challenges" Conference on 8 September in Berlin. Nowadays, in addition to foodstuffs and animal feed, soils also provide renewable raw materials for industrial use and for use as bio fuels, which leads to heightened competition over land use and to overstraining of the scarce resource.
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| Conference on 8 September in Berlin| © acatech / David Ausserhofer | |||
Once the conference had been opened by the acatech President Reinhard Hüttl, who highlighted the need for re-structuring in the domain of the sciences, Georg Schütte, the Secretary of State at the Federal Ministry for Education and Research explained before an invited audience of some 200 representatives from science, industry and politics the emphases of the Federal Government's research policies for the preservation and the further investigation of the geological resource, the soil.
Following this, Franz Makeschin, a soil scientist at the Dresden University of Technology and a member of acatech put forward the idea of a research and technology network for soil and land management. The network would work across the boundaries of individual research disciplines on geostrategic and economic issues in the area of soil as a resource and would prepare knowledge-driven recommendations for the domains of science, industry and politics.
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| Conference on 8 September in Berlin| © acatech / David Ausserhofer | |||
With an eye to the developing countries, Anneke Trux from the German Society for International Cooperation called on the industrial and political sectors in particular to define common goals for sustainable soil and land use, in order to stem the progressive destruction of fertile soils across the planet.
Clemens Neumann, the Ministerial Head of Department at the Federal Ministry for Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection referred in his speech to the importance of soils for a bio-based industry and emphasised the need for closer collaboration between pure research and applied research.
"The Earth's skin - as an object of research in the Geosciences" was the title of the contribution from Friedhelm von Blanckenburg from the German Research Centre for Geosciences, which introduced innovative pure research methods, which can give new impetus to application-oriented issues – in areas such as research into erosion, soil formation and in materials cycles in soils.
During the subsequent podium discussion Jens-Uwe
Fischer, from German railway, Deutsche Bahn AG and member of acatech, Cornelia
Behm from the political party BÜNDNIS
90/DIE GRÜNEN, acatech President Reinhard Hüttl, Sabine Kunst, the
Minister for Science, Research and Culture in the Federal State of Brandenburg
and member of acatech, together with Rainer Horn, the Chairman of the German
Soil Society and soil scientist at the University of Kiel discussed how the
ecological functions of soils and their sustainable use can be coordinated in
the future.
The BioEconomyCouncil, on whose
recommendations the German BioEconomy Research Strategy is based, had already
recently begun to point out the urgent relevance of sustainable soil and land
use. In its latest report, "Priorities in BioEconomy Research", the
Council recommends increased research efforts for the long-term preservation of
an adequate quantity and quality of soils. Central points of the report include,
for instance, the development of improved methods of cultivation and of species
of plants which are drought-tolerant and nutrient-efficient. Moreover, it is
essential to develop methods of cultivation which are adapted more closely than
hitherto to habitat and the altered environmental conditions. To achieve this,
the existing research capacities of non-university research establishments, of
departmental research and of business must be combined and common methods of
resolution for sustainable soil and land use must be developed.
For the recommendations of the BioEconomyCouncil, click here
The contributors
Cornelia Behm, member of parliament, BÜNDNIS 90/DIE GRÜNEN
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jens-Uwe Fischer, Deutsche Bahn AG
Prof. Dr. Rainer Horn, German Soil Science Society, Christian Albrechts University, Kiel
Prof. Dr. Reinhard F. Hüttl, President acatech
Prof. Dr. Martin Kaupenjohann, Berlin Technical University
Prof. Dr. Sabine Kunst, Minister of Science, Research and Culture for Brandenburg Region, acatech (invited)
Prof. Dr. Franz Makeschin, Professor of Soil Science and Soil Protection, Dresden Technical University, acatech
Clemens Neumann, Head of Department 5, Federal Ministry for Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection
Katherina Reiche, member of parliament, Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety
Dr. Georg Schütte, State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Education and Research
Dr. Anneke Trux, German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) (invited)
Prof. Dr. Friedhelm von Blanckenburg, GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences – Earth Surface Geochemistry