Serbia: A Global Perspective on Soil & Water Issues

My travels and meetings in southeastern Europe have been detailed in my last eight blog posts and included visits to Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Albania, Hungary, and Romania.  The central event which drew me to this region of Europe was LANDCON 1209 (the International Conference on Land Conservation:  Sustainable Land Management and Climate Changes) held in the Danube Region of Serbia, September 17-21, 2012.

 Route of our bus trip from the University of Belgrade to conference site on the Danube River

The conference was organized by the Faculty of Forestry at the University of Belgrade (Serbia) which ably arranged for the conference venue and handled the myriad of logistics necessary to host such an event.  There were also several co-organizers, the most significant of which was the World Association of Soil and Water Conservation (WASWAC or WASWC).

WASWAC was founded in 1983 as a forum for soil and water conservationists around the world.  It was originally based in the headquarters of a US organization, the Soil and Water Conservation Society (SWCS), in Iowa but has since relocated to the Institute of Soil and Water Conservation in Yangling, China.  In the words of its current president, Dr. Li Rui, WASWAC has devoted itself to a worldwide promotion of the application of wise soil and water management practices that will improve and safeguard the quality of land and water resources.  WASWAC currently has around 5000 members from 120 countries.  It publishes a monthly Hot News, a quarterly journal (Bulletin), and books (periodically).  Every three years, WASWAC hosts a World Conference.  The next one will take place in Bangkok, Thailand this May (http://www.ldd.go.th/web_waswac2/index.htm).  WASWAC also sponsors an international cooperation program, holds training courses, and hosts a student forum.

From WASWAC President Li Rui’s presentation, Brief Introduction of World Association of Soil and Water Conservation.  I felt there was a message to IECA in their future objectives which I underlined in red.

WASWAC (like its original “parent” organization, SWCS) seems to primarily focus on soil and water conservation related to agriculture.  It is also more of an academic and research-oriented organization in contrast to IECA which focuses more on applied erosion and sediment control related to construction projects.  Therefore, it appears that the two organizations are complementary rather than competitors.  I came away from LANDCON 1209 with the impression that our respective memberships have much to learn from each other.  A number of the papers presented at the conference involved research on the nature of erosion and sedimentation, modeling, climate change, water quality, agricultural water and soil issues, as well as erosion and sediment control techniques similar to those employed by IECA members who work in the erosion and sediment control industry.  

The conference venue was a comfortable (but not lavish) resort hotel in the Serbian town of Donji Milanovac located in Đerdap National Park (that D with the line through it is kinda pronounced like a J) along the Danube River gorge and across the river from Romania.  It was attended by professors, other environmental professionals, and students from at least 11 countries (by my count).  From introductory remarks by the forestry school dean and park director, I learned that Đerdap National Park is the largest of Serbia’s five national parks including 65,000 hectares (over 250 square miles) and following 50 miles of the Serbia-Romania border along the Danube.  Its biological diversity includes 1,100 plant species, 200 birds, 50 mammals, and 60 fish.

Note:  Some countries had several representatives at the conference so I just arbitrarily choose people for the above collage for whom I had a relatively good photo.  Correction on January 14:  There were actually at least 12 countries represented.  I forgot Jana Podhrázská of the Research Institute for Soil and Water Conservation in the Czech Republic.  Unfortunately, I failed to take her photo.

Dr. Miodrag Zlatić (the ć is pronounced like ch) was the President of the Conference Organizing Committee and a Past President of WASWAC.  He was the jovial forestry professor who picked me up at the Belgrade airport two weeks before the start of the conference and took me a Belgrade bar where we enjoyed (in his words) “glasses of conversation.”  

In his introductory remarks to the participants, Miodrag spoke about the importance of these LANDCON (which stands for “land conservation”) conferences.  He talked about the huge area of forest and grassland that has been lost to human development since the beginnings of agriculture and noted that the rate of loss is accelerating.  However, “we are here because we are optimists”, Miodrag added.  He also spoke of the importance of involving young people in soil and water conservation.  This latter remark was most fitting given the large number of natural resources students (mostly from Serbia) who attended the conference.  Miodrag felt that we are very knowledgeable about the technical aspects of soil and water conservation, but we need to better understand its social aspects.  For example, “What do farmers think about conservation measures and what they have used historically?”  Soil and water conservationists also need to look more toward problem solving such as the use of structural measures.  And I thought to myself, “This is an area where IECA professionals have much to contribute”.

Miodrag also introduced attendees from various countries and organizations.  The exuberant representative from Macedonia, Dr. Ivan Blinkov, even presented him with a bottle of Macedonian wine.  I was introduced as the representative from IECA and conveyed my wishes for greater cooperation and coordination between IECA and WASWAC. 

We then had a very interesting presentation from Dr. José Rubio, chair of WASWAC’s International Cooperation and Development Committee.   José works at the Center of Investigations on Desertification in Valencia, Spain.  He spoke about the “Global Soil Partnership”, a 2011 initiative of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).  

In his presentation on international initiatives involving soil conservation,
José Rubio led off with a simple message to grab our interest.

José pointed out that many contemporary world problems are related to soil.  When one considers that an already overcrowded world is becoming ever more crowded (mostly in developing countries), an adequate food supply is critical to ultimately preventing mass starvation.  The challenge is to preserve soil while improving agricultural productivity and food supply.  Thus, UN FAO member states have developed a Global Soil Partnership (GSP) with the vision of healthy and productive soils for a food-secure world.  The mission of the GSP is to protect and enhance soil resources through both technological innovation as well as the development of best practices, standards, and guidelines. 

While human population has leveled off in developed countries, the world’s population is projected to skyrocket to 9 billion by 2050 with all growth coming in developing countries. The implications for resource depletion (including water and soils) are sobering.  Slide from José Rubio’s presentation.

This is nothing new for the UN FAO.  In 1982, they adopted “a World Soil Charter spelling out basic principles and guidelines for sustainable soil management and soil protection to be followed by governments and international organizations” (http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/89277/icode/).  However, as you can easily imagine, there have been delays in applying the charter in many countries, especially those where it is most needed.  José said that a new World Soil Charter is needed with updates addressing new socio-economic, environmental, and demographic realities.  This charter would need to address the challenges of soil biodiversity, the role of soil in a functioning ecosystem, and demographic changes.

In my opinion, these are worthwhile goals.  However, my cynical side tends to get less than enthusiastic about UN initiatives.  The problem is not with the UN itself.  It has to do with rampant corruption and/or misplaced priorities in some of the member states.  How can we hope to improve soil resources, attack erosion and sedimentation, and ensure food security in the neediest countries where ruling oligarchs often manage to suck up aid money intended for community environmental initiatives?  So, let the UN FAO set goals for us to emulate but let’s apply our resources and talents in countries and communities where they won’t be wasted and where they genuinely are welcomed. 

In my next post, I will discuss more of the interesting presentations at the conference.

Top:  On the middle day of the conference, we took a hiatus from presentations and visited sites in Đerdap National Park.  Bottom:  Iron Gate of the Danube River just above the Đerdap Hydroelectric Power Station and dam.   

After the first day of the conference, some of us were invited to a party at a Serbian hunting lodge where we toasted to healthy soils and good friendship!  Top photo (L to R):  Li Rui (China), Miodrag Zlatić (Serbia), José Rubio (Spain), Ildefanso Pla Sentís (Spain).  Bottom photo (L to R):  Csilla Hudek (Hungary), Miodrag Zlatić (Serbia), Ilyusya Gabbasova (Russia), Ruslan Suleymanov (Russia).