Soil is the foundation of our lives and of all ecosystem services, although it is so far little present in public consciousness. But it is a very important part of our nature: it enables food production, serves as an important water storage and water filter, convert and dissipate organic residues and makes pollutants harmless. Remarkably there are more organisms living in soils than on its surface!
Today we take soil for granted, resulting in numerous negative consequences such as soil loss and soil destruction. 350-400 km² of arable soils are lost every day worldwide.
Now it is necessary to protect soils sustainably as a resource and therefore for our existence. For that reason the United Nations proclaimed 2015 as the International Year of Soils. The World Soil Day (5th of December) also offers an annually opportunity to point the way for the importance of soil as a resource and to campaign for soil protection.
This year the Innsbruck Nature Film Festival calls to send in films about soils. For the first time there is a separate category for films concerning soils which also has its own film award worth 2.000 Euros. Each film is an important contribution to raise the awareness for soil.
