Camilo Huneuss, on World Soil Day (WSD): "I understand the soil as a set of chemical and biological elements, as a living sustenance ..."

Camilo Huneuss, on World Soil Day (WSD): "I understand soil as a set of chemical and biological elements, as a livelihood ..."

19/12/2017

World Soil Day (WSD) was established by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the December 5 is celebrated annually as a means to focus attention on the importance of healthy soil and advocate for the sustainable management of soil resources in the world. The 197 countries that make up the FAO developed different activities in the world as a celebration under the motto: Care for the Planet begins with the Soil ".

In the context of the activities carried out in Chile, the environmental management expert at Yale University, Camilo Huneeus, explains what the soil means, what we step on, use and remove, and permanently we have it under our feet but apparently we do not see it .

What is meant by soil and how is it different from World Earth Day, which commemorates the April 22?
I understand the soil as a set of chemical and biological elements. As a living sustenance, which we also call earth. The December 5 is specifically celebrating what we walk every day without paying attention, which is the sustenance for agricultural development and water. Not necessarily the planet Earth as a whole.

For Huneuss, the first thing is to be aware that the change of land use, such as the clearing of forests to expand the urban radius, is one of the main factors that contribute to climate change. Because the soil is the one that is being affected and due to this practice, the process of desertification is advancing by leaps and bounds.

Camilo Huneuss Guzmán is a chemical industrial engineer from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile PUC, and a Master's degree in environmental management from Yale University, Connecticut, USA. He was the founder of the first sustainability office in the world, created in the PUC, and a member of the Chilean delegation to the United Nations Conference on Climate Change COP22.

The expert adopts the slogan "Think global, act local", as a way to influence the specificities of our daily habits "because there are many things we can do", he says, and places his gaze from home, recommending for example not buy informal sheet land, because "it is the first layer of the forest floor, that someone goes and takes it out", assuring that "with this practice they are killing that ecosystem". Suggests instead, make a compost, or develop the vermicompost, which is produced by the decomposition of organic matter by the activity of earthworm species of the genus Eisenia.

Camilo Hueneuss also calls to be careful with fertilizers and pesticides and use only what is necessary: "People usually buy bags of nitrogen and throw it away, all that with rain goes to the rivers, which causes problems of eutrophication. It is not a big issue even in Chile, but in the United States or Europe, people put a lot of nitrogen in their gardens and it drains into lakes and rivers, producing excesses of algae, and everything turns green, ugly and dies, "he said. .

The researcher draws attention to the expansion of the urban boundary "because it has a considerable impact on land use. The forests or meadows that now have a surface covered by cement, when it rains all the water that previously filtered the land drains and goes to a place where it can generate floods, as we see every year in Santiago, "he said.

He stressed that in Chile there is no Land Law. "Then there is the opportunity to generate the country level discussion, and to create a regulation of soil management and protection. Farmers have an opportunity to use regenerative farming tactics, which are in fact profitable, "he said.

On many occasions, people and organizations have demonstrated to effectively limit the depredation of agricultural land under the format of "urban expansion" and have demanded the repeal of DL3516 throughout the national territory, which is the juridical and legal support that allows converting fertile soils. , or suitable for agricultural activity, in plots of pleasure.

The soil is a thin layer that has formed very slowly over the centuries, with the disintegration of surface rocks by the action of water, changes in temperature and wind. Thousands of life forms multiply on the ground, most of them invisible to our eyes. In one hectare of fertile land there can be more than 300 million of small insects, spiders, worms and other tiny animals, as well as millions of bacteria, yeast cells and small fungi. All the substances that form the soil are important by themselves, but the fundamental thing is the right balance between the different constituents.

Source: Martín Carrillo O. - Blueberries Consulting