The HuMUS Project invites you to its first local soil health webinar on Thursday, October 19, at 10:00-11:30 am CEST! This event will convene representatives of European municipalities and regions, EU policymakers, and soil health advocates to discuss soil health regeneration focusing on participatory methods. For HuMUS, participation means that the stakeholders and citizens take part in decision-making processes and their final products. To document and foster local participation, the project will publish a catalogue of best practices in citizen and stakeholder engagement on soil health at the municipal and regional levels, including the implementation of participatory methods, tools, and approaches for stakeholder engagement in action research on soil use and land management. Further, in regional and territorial case studies, HuMUS develops participatory activities and creates spaces of dialogue.

The webinar will share preliminary research results from these lines of work. Join to learn about an open call coming up at the end of the year to fund initiatives and organisations across Europe to develop and implement participatory processes that stimulate dialogue on soil and land use and increase awareness of soil health at the regional and municipal levels.

Participation is at the heart of Mission Soil too. The HuMUS project works together with inspiring EU projects to advance our common mission: improve soil health across Europe. In the second part of the event, you will hear from soil experts to foster a common understanding on soil health and stakeholder participation.

RECORDING AVAILABLE

REGISTER HERE

Agenda

Welcome and introduction to the HuMUS project

Francesco Molinari, Project Manager, ANCI Toscana

Presentations of preliminary research 

Raphael Tiziani, Research Assistant, UNIBZ

• WP1: Soil Intelligence [SLIDES]   
  • This presentation introduces WP1 (Soil Intelligence) which gathers all desk analyses and preparatory initiatives to support the citizen and stakeholder dialogues.

Carmen Navarro Mezquita, Graduate in Geography, Department of Organic Production, AGAPA

• Establishing the regional dialogues on soil health: how we plan to carry them out [SLIDES] 
  • By involving all Quadruple Helix stakeholders, we aim to develop and test the participatory methodology to identify and implement joint solutions to soil problems.

Alberto Mataran Ruiz, Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Granada, visiting scholar at the Department of Geography at the University of Cambridge 

• Best practices on participation based on the biodistrict approach for regions and municipalities [SLIDES] 
  • Based on the biodistrict approach, the presentation will focus on best practices concerning the implementation of Participatory Research and Action on soil use and land management at municipal and regional level

Dr. Marianne Hoogmoed, Researcher of Soil and Sustainable Cultivation, Louis Bolk Institute

• Facilitating regional dialogues on soil health [SLIDES] 
  • Louis Bolk Institute developed a participatory tool to create semi-structured dialogues between different stakeholders about the different ecosystem services in relation to soil health. This tool is tested in a couple of regions in the Netherlands and is further developed in the HuMUS Project.

Soil biology and soil ecology: how do participatory activities advance soil health?

Roy Neilson, Plant-Soil Interactions Research Group Leader, The James Hutton Institute

• Muck in, get your hands dirty [SLIDES]. 
  • The talk will outline a series of participatory activities that have focussed on Scottish soils ranging from the establishment of a Citizens Observatory to mapping the distribution of an invasive alien species.

Sven Marhan, Senior Researcher, Department of Soil Biology, University of Hohenheim

• The role of soil humus [SLIDES] 

Moderated discussion and Q&A

Moderator: Francesco Molinari, Project Manager, ANCI Toscana