IUSS Alert - 28 (August 2007)

Information for and from the global soil science community

Soil Science Society of East Africa Conference

The 24th Annual Conference of the Soil Science Society of East Africa (SSSEA) will be held on 26-30th November 2007 in Embu, Kenya. The event will draw scientists from research organizations, universities, non-governmental organizations, farmers' groups and international soil related organizations operating in the East African region. The theme of the Conference will be: 'Improved Livelihoods through Applied Soil Science and Land Management'. Abstracts are to be submitted in both hard and electronic version or as e-mail attachment by 30 August, 2007. The deadline for submission of full papers is on 15th October, 2007. Send your abstract/paper/posters to: SSSEA Secretariat, Kenyan Chapter, P.O. Box 14733-00800, Nairobi, Kenya. Email to both of these addresses: and 

Review of FAO

Recently, there has been an Independent External Evaluation of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nation. The draft report (2.5 Mb, 395 pp) can be downloaded from the website www.fao.org and contains several comments of interest to the global soil science community. One of the recommendations: 'Lands and soils should be given greater priority.'

New issue of Pedometron
A new issue (number 22) is available from the www.pedometrics.org and www.iuss.org  In this issue an introduction to Tubingen where the biennial meeting of the Pedometrics commission is held, Elisabeth Bui has look at Dokuchaev and the zonal soil concept and there are contribution on self citation in pedometrics, the art of ploughing, digital soil mapping and soil science, on pyrometrie and pedomathemagica, and much more. As always:  Happy reading!                              

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