Síðast uppfært: Sunnudagur, 28. desember 2008 10:15 Þriðjudagur, 25. nóvember 2008 10:35

The International Forum on Soils, Society and Global Change was held in Selfoss, Iceland 31 August – 4 September 2007, on the occasion of 100 years of organized soil conservation and land restoration in Iceland – one of the longest standing in the world. The main aim of the Forum was to elaborate on the synergistic role of soil conservation and vegetation restoration in meeting many of the local, regional and global environmental and social challenges that rest with us.

The Forum was organized and hosted by the Soil Conservation Service in Iceland. Among co-organizers were several Icelandic institutions, international agencies, organizations and universities. These included, inter alia, the Agricultural University of Iceland, the University of Iceland, the Farmers Association of Iceland, UNU, UNDP, UNEP and the Ohio State University. The President of Iceland, Dr Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, was the Patron of this Forum.

More than 100 experts from over 35 countries attended this international Forum. Supported by excellent plenary presentations, the Forum emphasized discussion and dialogue in five working groups. The results of the working groups will be posted on this website.

The overall Forum Conclusions (The Selfoss Statement) draws upon the main conclusions from the working groups and can be found under Results. Presentation abstracts can be found here, and the presentations will be available until February 20th 2008 under the Programme section.

The Forum organizers sincerely thank the many people and organizations that contributed to the Forum and participated in it here in Iceland. We specially acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Iceland, in particular the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Ministry for the Environment, The Nordic Council, the Reykjavík Energy, the Nordic House in Iceland and the Farmers Association of Iceland.

For more information, please do not hesitate to contact the Chair of the Organizing Committee, Dr. Andrés Arnalds ( Þetta tölvupóstfang er varið gegn ruslpóstsþjörkum, Þú verður að hafa JavaScript virkt til að sjá það. ) at the Soil Conservation Service of Iceland.