Why do we have to celebrate the International Year of Soils?

Abstract

More than 600 years after the statement by Leonardo Da Vinci (around 1500) "We know more about the movement of celestial bodies than about the soil underfoot" the United Nations proclaimed in December 2013 the year 2015 as the International Year of Soils. This enables and stimulates us to document the worldwide importance of our soils and to convince people of all ages, politicians and NGO's of the complex importance of land use and soil management boundaries in order to sustain our soils and to protect them from irreversible losses and degradation. Soil is the basis of life on earth and an interface between different environmental systems and plays a key role in the environmental biogeochemical cycles. It is widely recognized that soils perform several basic functions in maintaining the production of agro-ecosystems, improving the quality of water and air, supporting human settlements and ensuring the quality of life for living beings ...