Rescue of our soils: Now coordinate the worst building sin!

Rescue of our soils: Now coordinate the worst building sin!

Wiener Neustadt, Österreich - In Austria, soil consumption remains a serious problem. Around 11 hectares of valuable soils disappear every day, which is more than four times as much as the defined sustainability goal of 2.5 hectares. This alarming development is sharply criticized by environmental organizations such as the WWF, which complies with a "political failure" in terms of soil protection. In order to involve the population and draw attention to this problem, the WWF calls on the “worst building of Austria” to send a clear message to domestic politics: “Nature instead of concrete” [today.at] (https://www.heute.at/s/oesterreichs-groesste-hier-kannst-du- abstahrt-11027).

Six examples of the questionable handling of floors are available. Among the favorites is an abandoned shopping center in Leobersdorf, which has largely been empty for two decades. A newly built campsite in Hinterstoder, which takes up an impressive 20,000 square meters, and a chalet village in Klippitztörl in Carinthia, which is to be expanded by 70 more chalets, also appear in the list. There is also the eastern bypass at Wiener Neustadt, which cuts agricultural areas and a Natura 2000 area, as well as a business park in Fürstenfeld in Styria, which extends over two kilometers. A logistics center in Ohlsdorf is particularly striking, for which 19 hectares of forest were cleared.

ground degradation as a global phenomenon

Bodendegradation is a serious global phenomenon that has far -reaching consequences for agricultural areas and the preservation of biodiversity. It is estimated that 20 to 25 percent of the soils are already degraded worldwide, which significantly limits their performance. This dramatic development is not only caused by natural factors such as erosion, but is often increased by human interventions. According to the Federal Environment Agency, international demands for a coordinated approach to the protection of the soils and at the Rio+20 conference 2012 was already aimed at a "Land Degradation Neutral World" environmental-tundamt.de.

The soil plays an immensely important role in the ecosystem: it stores and cleans water, offers habitat for organisms, provides nutrients and binds carbon. Unfortunately, the ground degradation in agriculture is particularly bad, since more than a third of the agricultural areas have already degraded soils. In the EU, almost one billion tons of soil erodes every year-and this exceeds the new formation rate of the floors by far [boell.de] (https://www.boell.de/de/2024/09/bodendegegradation-wir-wrauchen- Mehrt-bodenschutz).

the need for measures

A long -term preservation of fertile soils is imperative to ensure global nutritional security and the economic well -being of rural regions. Better legal framework and binding controls urgently need to be created. Above all, because according to FAO, around 1.5 billion people are directly affected by ground degradation. The upcoming amendment to the Federal Floor Protection Act could be a decisive step in the right direction in order to create clearer guidelines and to enforce good technical practices in agriculture.

Austria is faced with the challenge of finding a sustainable handling of its soils in order to secure a valuable habitat even future generations. The coordination of the "worst building sin" is a first step to draw attention to this explosive topic and to persuade politics to act.