World Soil Day 5 December

Action Soil of the Year

The soil of the year has been selected and presented by the Steering committee Soil of the Year since 2005. With this action, soils and their ecosystem functions shall be made aware to as many people as possible in order to promote a responsible handling and hence protection of this essential resource. Criteria for selection und nomination:

Soil of the Year – selection and nomination

The steering committee organizes the presentation of the soil of the year on the World Soil Day on December 5th. The soil of the year is presented to the public using posters, flyers, publications, webpages and numerous events in Germany.

The Steering committee Soil of the Year is a board of the German Soil Science Society (DBG), the German Soil Association (BVB) as well as the German Engineer Association for Management of Contaminated Soils and Land Recycling (ITVA). This action is funded by the German Environment Agency (Umweltbundesamt, UBA) in Dessau, Germany.

„All human activities use soils in a direct or indirect way. Therefore, everybody is a “soil stakeholder” and has to bear responsibility for soil protection. However, conservation cannot be successful without an awareness of and knowledge about soil valuation. This insight, which means understanding soils and their problems, has to be developed through education and the transfer of knowledge.“ (Monika FRIELINGHAUS 2019)