ZEF-director emphasizes economic importance of soils at Eschborn Dialogue
December 05, 2013.
At this year's 'Eschborn Dialogue', an event organized by GIZ on June 18-19 and attended by around 400 experts from politics, business and industry, science and civil society, ZEF-director Joachim von Braun gave a key note on 'The economic importance of soils' during a forum on 'The competition for soil: are we losing ground?'
Von Braun conveyed four main messages:
1. The cost of soil and land degradation is high, not well known, and crucial to global human well-being and food security. The cost of action (sustainable land management) is much smaller than the cost of inaction.
2. The soil and land problems are global, thus an assessment and actions related to public goods have to be global.
3. Climate change makes land use and soil issues more urgent, emphasizing productivity risks and opportunities for re-carbonization.
4. Governance of soils and property rights of (small) farmers are urgent global issues.
You can learn more about ZEF’s research on “Economics of land degradation”.
