Soil quality and soil conservation
During the last years, land has been acquired worldwide on a large-scale and costs for buying and renting farmland in European countries has steadily increasing and soil quality rating appears on the agenda of large organizations like FAO. This shows impressively that not only soil scientists and environmentalists but also economists recognize that neither new soil nor new land can be manufactured by man reasonably and thus is a limited and not renewable resource of extreme value. Since soil is not only private property but also a common good, soil conservation and sustainable land management is a highly dynamic and complex system. This session seeks to present new theories, approaches and examples of soil conservation that integrate state-of-the art knowledge on the role of soil for nature as well as for society. The definition of soil quality and its rating are further challenges that combines findings and techniques form fundamental and applied research. The session is open to all kinds of analytical, statistical and conceptual methods and transdisciplinary research is highly welcome.

Conveners:
Wim Cornelis, University of Ghent, Belgium
Michael A. Fullen, University of Wolverhampton, Great Britain
Lillian Øygarden, NIBIO- Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research, Norway
Thomas Scholten, University of Tübingen, Germany

Co-convener:
European Society for Soil Conservation (ESSC)