As part of the EU Soil Mission, Healthy Municipal Soils (HuMUS) project engages and activates municipalities and regions to protect and restore soil health. Municipalities are at the forefront of local soil management, regulation, innovation, and community-building and thus are pivotal to deploying the Soil Mission on the ground. In addition to raising awareness about the importance of healthy soils – the basis of all human economies – the project will empower communities to create suitable local solutions for themselves.
Using a trans-disciplinary approach and a multi-stakeholder methodology for planning and coordinating local production and consumption, HuMUS will stimulate social innovation. The participatory approach involves diverse stakeholders: citizens, farmers, landowners and land managers, consumers, civil society organizations, research institutions, businesses, and public authorities at the regional and national levels. The focus of the project is holistic soil health, looking beyond only agricultural soil to all types of soil and land use.
The main project objectives are:
· Improve soil literacy in society.
· Facilitate the deployment of the Soil Mission at regional and local levels.
· Build capacities and knowledge base for soil stewardship.
· Co-create and upscale place-based innovations to improve soil health in all places.
· Engage with the land users and society at large.
Partnership
The HuMUS project brings together 18 European partners from 9 different countries: ANCI TOSCANA ASSOCIAZIONE (IT), LIBERA UNIVERSITÀ DI BOLZANO (IT), UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DI SCIENZE GASTRONOMICHE (IT), REGIONALE D’AGRICULTURE DES PAYS DE LA LOIRE (FR), UNIVERSITAET HOHENHEIM (DE), ASOCIACION EMPRESARIAL DE INVESTIGACION CENTRO TECNOLOGICO NACIONAL AGROALIMENTARIO EXTREMADURA CTAEX (ES), STICHTING LOUIS BOLK INSTITUUT (NL), AGROECOLOGY EUROPE (BE), UNIVERSIDAD DE GRANADA (ES), ERNÄHRUNGSRAT STADTREGION STUTTGART E.V. (DE), REGIONALNO SDRUZHENIE NA OBSTINI TSENTRALNA STARA PLANINA (BG), FUNDACION FUNDECYT – PARQUE CIENTIFICO Y TECNOLOGICO DE EXTREMADURA (ES), AGENCIA DE GESTION AGRARIA Y PESQUERA DE ANDALUCIA (ES), REGIONAL RURAL DEVELOPMENT STANDINGWORKING GROUP IN SEE (MK), REGIONALNA RAZVOJNA AGENCIJA ZA PODRAVJE – MARIBOR (SI), VEGEPOLYS VALLEY (FR), LANDWIRTSCHAFTSKAMMER NORDRHEIN-WESTFALEN (DE), UNIVERSIDAD DE CÓRDOBA (ES).
Duration 36 months: from January 2023 to December 2025. For more info and to stay up to date, you can follow HuMUS Website: https://humus-project.eu/