From May 14 to 16, 2014, at Lednice in the Czech Republic the international SONDAR CZ-AT & ELSA meetings on the topics of "Soil quality / soil erosion / soil sealing / soil awareness" took place

This event was subsidized by the European Union, and the participants were offered an interesting programme. At the opening, on May 14 an exposition was designed together with school girls and boys, showing soil colour paintings of the elementary school of Lednice as well as some Austrian schools, and presented to the public.
On May 15, the main day of meeting took place at the newly refurbished multifunction center of Lednice. After the welcome speech by the organizers and Libor Kabát, Mayor of Lednice, Helena Bendová from the Czech Ministry of the Environment held a lecture on current developments concerning soil conservation in the Czech Republic. The main lecturer from Claudia Olazabal from the Department of the Environment of the European Commission was about the role of public awareness in the fields of soil conservation and sustainability in the EU, as well as about current developments and planning concerning the FAO International Year of Soils 2015, and possible links to the SONDAR network. Vaclav Cilek from the institute of Geology AS CR, v.v.i followed with his speech about international relationships between soil, climate and people.
Erwin Szlezak from the Lower Austrian Agrarbezirksbehörde, Fachabteilung Landentwicklung, talked about founding, developing and future prospectives of the cooperation between SONDAR and the working group sunstainability of the working comunity of the danube countries.

Presentation of the results from the Project SONDAR CZ-AT
Miroslav Dumbrovsky and Peter Strauss presented the results of the case study on erosion in relation to land use changes and their impacts in model municipalitys in the Czech Republic and Austria.
Wilfried Hartl talked about model measures against soil erosion in vineyards by greening activites.
Kvetuse Hejatkova and Bernhard Kuderer showed the soil awareness activities done during the Project. For example „painting with the colours of the earth" or the soil ambassador trainings" for land users, stakeholders and interessted people.

SONDAR: Soil conservation and sustainability network in the danube region
The aim of SONDAR is to implement a network of increasing responsibility for designing and testing sustainable processes and especially for Soil as basis of our live. A network between science and practice, between stakeholders and land users, between business, social enterprisesand civil society, between education, art and the entire population.

Download of the presentations:

Claudia Olazabal - The role of public awareness in the future of the EU soil policy

Erwin Szlezak - Soil conservation and sustainability in the danube region

Miroslav Dumbrovský - Land use changes and their impact on soil
erosion in South Moravia region

Peter Strauss - Soil Erosion Development

Wilfried Hartl - Green manuring measures against soil erosion in the regions South Moravia and Eastern Austria

Kvetuste Hejatkova - Soil Awareness and Soil Ambassador Training

Bernhard Kuderer - Soil Awareness and Painting with the colours of the earth

Milan Sanka - Soil Sealing

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