EEF poster

A poster on how to remediate contaminated soils by planting native shrubs and trees prepared by the RECARE project team at Agencia Estatal Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificass (CSIC), Spain, was presented at the 13th European Ecological Federation (EEF) in Rome.

Soil contamination affects large areas of soil in Europe due to harmful products from agriculture, industry, cities and mining.  

Under the RECARE project, 2 Case Study areas in Guadiamar, Spain and in Copsa Mica, Romania are exploring remediation solutions to soil contamination through:

  • Phytostabilization
  • Immobilisation using inorganic additives

For more information about soil contamination follow the link here

These 3 videos produced by the RECARE project tell the human story of the threats to soils in Europe.  They highlight the impact of soil threats on people's lives and explain what the scientists in the RECARE project are trying to do to improve the situation.

This video is a short trailor of the 3 films summarising the main messages.

This film set in Romania describes the devastating impact of soil pollution from a local factory on people's lives, how they live with this threat and what the RECARE project is trying to do to help them.

This film set in Norway highlights the increasing challenges faced by farmers from increased flooding as a result of changes to the climate. 

This film is set in the orange orchards of southern Spain and highlights the degrading impact that modern farming practices are having on soils. 

In a video clip, recently issued by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the importance of soil for all life on earth is again emphasized. The animated video is produced by the Global Soil Partnership and promotes the creation of a UN World Soil Day and the adoption of 2015 as the International Year of Soils. The animation outlines the importance and benefits of soils and the hazards currently facing them.

These same hazards, or soil threats, are under investigation by the RECARE project. Read more about RECARE on this website.

 

Lagricultura Actual tn

Project partner Artemi Cerda, of partner institute University of Valencia, is organising a big stakeholder even titled 'L'agricultura Actual' (Today's Agriculture).

The event will take place on June 20th and 21st 2015 in Valencia. The main purpose of the event is to make the general public and especially stakeholders from the area aware of the consequences of modern agricultural methods and techniques, and what implications these have for the land and culture in the Spanish setting.

The accompanying text in the event folder reads: 

'Today's agriculture is at a crossroad that leads to modernization, industrialization and the denaturation of its production. However, there are entrepreneurs that want to bring agriculture and economic activity closer to the people, and wish to share their ideas with society. This meeting introduces the RECARE research project, and El Celler del Roure Teularet wants to show how users and farmers can build a new path towards a Modern agriculture without losing their traditional values.' 

The event folder can be downloaded HERE.

GSW Gudrun Schwilch

A number of RECARE partners attended the Global Soil Week in Berlin from 19th-23rd April 2015. Global Soil Week is an international gathering of people interested in sustainable soil management and responsible land governance. Around 600 policy-makers, scientists, farmers, students, artists and industry from 80 countries came together to find strategies to ensure the sustainable management of soil and land. RECARE partners, Gudrun Schwilch, Simone Verzandvoort and Jane Mills contributed to a 4 hour dialogue session entitled "Soil and land information: How to support decision-making?"  The RECARE ecosystem services framework for soils which has been developed within the project was presented. They then facilitated two participatory world café sessions to receive feedback on the framework. Feedback was positive and included a number of useful suggestions to further develop the framework. Also during the session a trailer for 3 films on soil threats produced by the RECARE project was screened and was well received.

GSW Jane Mills

GSW world cafe session