WIPO GREEN and UN World Soil Day
December 5, 2016
December 5 marks UN World Soil Day – a yearly event to raise awareness of issues around the sustainable use and management of soil. As one of the world’s leading green technology marketplaces, WIPO GREEN has been dedicated to promoting green innovations, including in soil and related fields.
The WIPO GREEN Database currently contains more than 2200 green technologies and many of these address soil issues specifically. The below examples of soil-related technologies currently listed on the database demonstrate the importance of soil in a wide range of fields – water, pollution, microorganisms, agriculture, and construction, to name a few:
- Plant growth booster (INOVATECH, Niger)
- Biodegradable Soil Sensors that can be “Planted” with a Seed Mixture (NDSU Research Foundation, United States of America)
- In-situ Remediation of Inorganic Contaminants and Heavy Metals from soil (Auburn University, United States of America)
- Microbes from the Negev Desert with Potential for Use as Plant-Growth Promoting Bacteria (University of California, Los Angeles, United States of America)
- Conservation Farming (East Africa Climate Innovation Network, Kenya)
- Vertical Green Biobed for the Efficient Degradation of Pesticides (University of Geneva, Switzerland)
- Performance of Microbial Compositions and Activities of JW Ecological Pavements (Ding Tai Co., Ltd, United Kingdom)
- Geotechnical solutions – A range of Geosynthetic Products (Admir Technologies, Israel)
- Mechanical Concrete for Road Construction (The Innovation Hub Management Company, South Africa)
What is UN World Soil Day?
World Soil Day celebrates the importance of soil as a critical component of the natural system and as a vital contributor to human wellbeing. Sustainable soil management systems are critical to unlocking the full potential of soils to support food production, store and supply clean water, preserve biodiversity, cut carbon emissions, and increase resilience to a changing climate. As such, the event is also linked to the wider UN Sustainable Development Goals.