Living Land

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of Massive Open Online Courses (ELD-MOOC) has been

carried out.

Raising awareness on soil conservation and food security

and promoting action also in Germany is a central element

of Germany’s commitment to combating soil and land

degradation. Within the earmark of the International Year

of the Soil in 2015, BMZ has funded a media campaign in

Germany entitled ‘Soil. Sustains life.’. Different formats of

communication such as a web page, thematic newsletters,

an exhibition and media outreach are used to raise aware-

ness among the general public on the importance of soil,

its functions and interrelations with many facets of our life.

Within the Global Soil Week 2015, we also supported the

‘One Hectare’ installation to illustrate the topics of soil and

land on one hectare in a central park in Berlin.

Some practical examples

Most people in sub-Saharan Africa cook and heat with

wood. During the decades to come, charcoal will continue

to be the key source of energy in the ever-growing cities.

As charcoal is almost always produced illegally, the conse-

quences are forest degradation and land degradation.

In northern Madagascar, therefore, German DC has

developed an approach which combines the large-scale

reforestation of degraded land for sustainable wood energy

production with improved property rights, innovations

in transformation technologies and economic benefits for

the population. Some 9,000 hectares of plantation already

supply a quarter of the charcoal used by the regional city

Sustainable land management and the rehabilitation of degraded land are an integral part of German DC projects and programmes around the world

Image: GIZ/ECO

Soil protection in concrete terms: promoting

soil fertility in Ethiopia

In the country’s upland areas, the Government is promoting a national

programme geared to sustainable land management. Success is

being achieved here in combating erosion and making more effective

use of rainwater for agriculture. The Global Programme on Soil

Protection and Soil Rehabilitation for Food Security will complement

this approach. Utilizing integrated fertility management measures, soil

fertility will be increased in land areas which have been protected but

remain low in nutrients. A key factor in this is the improved biomass

management, use of organic fertilizers and crop husbandry measures,

complemented by the targeted use of mineral fertilizers.

Soil protection in concrete terms: sustainable

land management in Benin

Two-thirds of arable land in Benin is now affected by soil

degradation. This poses a threat in terms of food and livelihood to

the population of predominantly small crop and livestock farmers.

To combat this, the Beninese Government promotes tried-and-

tested practices of sustainable land management at local, regional

and national level. The Global Programme on Soil Protection and

Soil Rehabilitation for Food Security supports the use of site-

adapted and mainly organic fertilizers on smallholdings as well as

the safeguarding of access to land. Curricula are being prepared

for farmer field school services with a view to training personnel.

At national level, the programme supports integration of the soil

conservation issue into national strategies and exchange with

international knowledge networks.

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