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Dear Colleagues,

You are cordially invited to attend the international conference on "Soil - the non-renewable environmental resource" organised by the Faculty of Regional Development and International Studies, Mendel University in Brno, to be held on the 7th - 9th September 2015 (Monday - Wednesday).

From the regional and global viewpoint, the soil is an irreplaceable and non-renewable environmental resource on which human nutrition is directly or indirectly dependent. In many regions of the world, the connection between soil and agriculture has a considerable share in the gross domestic product and is the basic source of living for the population. Even though many people are aware of this issue, globally, there are two long contrasting phenomena - permanent growth of the population of the planet in parallel to the decreasing area of farmland. For these reasons, the pressure to increase production on the decreasing area of land will continue to grow. In addition, it will present a number of questions, risks and problems all connected with care for the basic soil property - soil fertility.  The year 2015 is named the International Year of Soils, an initiative from the UN to raise widespread understanding about the importance of soils.

Throughout history, the rise and fall of human civilizations have been closely connected to the way we treat - or mistreat - the living soils of our planet. The way we manage our soils plays a vital role in ensuring food security, combating climate change and supporting ecosystem functions. However, many soils are still managed unsustainably, resulting in widespread and rapid soil degradation, which puts our capacity to meet the needs of future generations at risk.

The main organiser of the international conference is the Department of Environmentalists and Natural Resources, Faculty of Regional Development and International Studies, Mendel University in Brno in cooperation with the following institutions:

Department of Agroenvironmental Chemistry and Plant Nutrition, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague;

Department of Agrochemistry and Plant Nutrition, Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra; 

Department of Agricultural and Environmental Chemistry, University of Agriculture in Krakow; 

Department of Agroecosystems, University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice; 

The Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic; 

Crop Research Institute in Prague; 

Central Institute for Supervising and Testing in Agriculture Brno; 

Research Institute for Soil and Water Conservation Prague, among others.