July 7, 2021 – Today we celebrate International Soil Conservation Day. We recognize and highlight the importance of conserving and responsibly managing this resource; healthy soil contributes to environmental justice, food security, and the economic development of a community. It also helps keep adjacent bodies of water clean and healthy. This is why soil conservation is one of the Estuary's goals.
Soil conservation is also part of the UN Sustainable Development Goals . The third target of the fifteenth goal, Life on Land, highlights:
15.3: By 2030, combat desertification, rehabilitate degraded lands and soils, including lands affected by desertification, drought and flooding, and strive to achieve a land degradation-neutral world.
This annual commemoration is observed in honor of the American conservationist Hugh Hammond Bennett, "father of soil conservation," who, through studies in the US and other territories, identified the causes and effects of soil erosion.
Photos: Soil health workshops at Vivero Estuario, Antiguo Ancón de Loíza, 2019.
