Lower Austria celebrates World Soil Day

PLANK: We are strongly committed to soil protection.

St. Poelten (December 5, 2007) On this World Soil Day, the mayor and persons responsible from the Lower Austrian member municipalities of the Land and Soil Alliance, schools and environmental organizations and international experts in soil protection were invited to the Babenberger Hall in Klosterneuburg. For celebrating, for exchanging information, and for an expert discussion.

„We have one Earth only, one soil, upon which all of us stand. To carefully protect and sensibly use this soil, is the aim of the Lower Austrian soil campaign and of the worldwide Land and Soil Alliance. 44 municipalities and the Province of Lower Austria are committed to sustainable projects, which can be implemented in practice. I invite all municipalities to join us on our way. Let us implement the contents of our campaign together. ‘Our soil, upon which we stand”, thus invited Landesrat of Environmental Affairs, Josef Plank all participants on the occasion of the festive speech.

The World Soil Day, taking place every year on December 5, sets a signal for the significance of the natural resource of soil.

International World Soil Day in Klosterneuburg

This event, organized by the Department of Rural Developoment, aims at various targets. On the one hand, children and youth shall receive incentives to occupy themselves with the topic of “soil”. In this context, there is a various, interesting and interactive survey: Environmental organizations, schools, municipalities, and the Province of Lower Austria invite to visit more than 20 information stands. The scale reaches from the project of the viticultural school of Klosterneuburg „iBod – I am soil“ to offers from the Lower Austrian Provincial Museum, the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna and to a painting station with Colours of the Earth and a huge soil memory and soil boccia in the festival hall.

The experts in soil protection, who have arrived from the U.S.A. and Europe, among them Prof. Domy C. Adriano (University of Georgia), Prof. Stephen Nortcliff (General Secretary of the International Union of Soil Sciences), Prof. Winfried Blum (European Confederation of Soil Science Societies), are prepared to answer questions from all participants and pupils.

Landesrat Plank handed over eight further soil plates to the member municipalities of the European Land and Soil Alliance, Klosterneuburg, Breitenfurt, Mauerbach, Brunn am Gebirge, Perchtoldsdorf, Tullnerbach, Voesendorf, Wolfsgraben and to the agricultural school in Tulln. The plates are 2 by 2 meter plates with the Lower Austrian logo and the typical soil profile of the respective municipality. Lower Austria has the honour to have most of the member municipalities in all of Europe. A total of 44 municipalities have obliged themselves to carefully use soil, and contribute to soil protection by means of innovative projects and soil and environment-friendly cultivation of soil. Plank: “I am very pleased that the soil campaign “Our soil – upon which we stand!”, which was launched this spring, has become European standard of best practice right from the beginning.