World Soil Day, 5-December 2020

Every year, World Soil Day is 5th December. This year the theme is "Keep soil alive, protect soil biodiversity". http://www.fao.org/world-soil-day/en/ 

Normally SSSI would mark the day with an event open to members and the wider community interested in soils. As it will not be possible to hold a face-to-face meeting this year, SSSI would like all people who are interested in the soil to contribute to an online event in Ireland.

FAO has created infographics (at the fao link above) to help explain the role of soil biodiversity in simple terms. SSSI would like anyone who is interested to make a 30-90 second video answering the question, "what is your personal understanding or experience of one of the drivers of soil biodiversity loss in your local environment?"  You are free to interpret this as broadly as you like. High production values are not important, we are looking for as many personal contributions as possible. When preparing the video, please refer to one of the ideas or themes described on the infographic and present a personal association with your local environment.

If you want to contribute, please record your short video using a mobile phone or camera (MP4 format is our preference and ideally in landscape orientation) and upload it to the shared folder before 25th November 2020. The file name should indicate your name and the driver you are talking about. Please contact the Soil Science Society of Ireland (suzanne.higgins@afbini.gov.uk) for the link.

We will compile your video alongside many other contributions on the Soil Science Society of Ireland YouTube Channel, which will be launched at 10 am on the 4th December 2020. We would encourage as many people as possible to browse the videos to get a sense of how soil stakeholders in Ireland think about the drivers of soil biodiversity loss. 

If you would like to follow the activities of the society please follow the Twitter handle @SSSI_soils or visit our website https://www.ucd.ie/sssi/