About LOESS

"LOESS places soil health at the center of interest to take care of the planet and its inhabitants"

LOESS is a European programme for the recuperation of soil health. It focuses on increasing soil literacy, via developing educational offers and continuous training programmes as well as skills development activities addressing multiple actors, stakeholders and target groups connected to soil education. The Horizon Europe project LOESS: ‘Literacy boost through an Operational Educational Ecosystem of Societal actors on Soil health’ officially started in June 2023, under the EU Mission ‘A Soil Deal for Europe’.

Soil an indispensable ally for climate change mitigation and adaptation

Soil hosts more that 25% of all biodiversity on the planet and is the foundation of our food chains and above ground biodiversity, it feeds and filters drinking water reserves. Healthy soils are also the largest terrestrial carbon pool on the planet which together with their sponge-like function to absorb water and reduce the risk of flooding and drought, makes soil an indispensable ally for climate change mitigation and adaptation.

To value soils, people need more than scientific information

People need to understand how healthy soils impact their lives. For that, it is important to involve all strata of the European population. It is crucial to start from people’s existing practices, values, and concerns in order to build increased awareness, understanding, and engagement. All in all, we must improve soil literacy.

To reach this aim, LOESS is mapping, connecting, and engaging with multiple actors to providing an overview of the current level of soil related knowledge in different educational levels and to develop teaching programmes and materials. LOESS aims is to co-create and test pedagogical techniques to encourage effective knowledge flows and discourse between educators and learners and between different knowledge systems (scientific, political, individual local and collective cultural knowledge).

20 partners in 16 different countries

There are 20 partners in 16 different countries, as LOESS includes regions from different geographical areas and will address regional and local soil health challenges and create tools suitable for successful communication on local issues. LOES will use easy language, barrier-free technology, hands-on activities, workshops, teaching modules to ensure content will be widely accessible.

In short, LOESS will increase soil literacy as all people need more than scientific information, we all need to understand how healthy soils impact our lives.