World Food Day Colloquium 2015
Grasslands - secret resource for a hungry world?
We cordially thank all speakers and participants for the interesting presentations and fruitful discussions!
The World Food Day Colloquium 2015 sucessfully took place on Friday, October 16th, 2015, at the University of Hohenheim.
Thematic background:
Grasslands are the largest terrestrial ecosystem worldwide, covering a land area of approximately 52.5 million km². Savannas, steppes, and tundras contribute largely to atmospheric carbon sequestration, biodiversity conservation, as well as fresh water filtration and storage. For millennia, their use for pastoral livestock production has sustained livelihoods of millions of people worldwide.
But, as a result of the growing human population and an increasing demand for food and energy, grasslands are more and more at risk. An intensive debate is therefore going on how to use and conserve these ecosystems in the future. Challenges related to the increasing intensity and competitiveness in the use of grasslands, the sedentarization of mobile livestock farmers, their access rights to natural resources, and the need for conserving the multiple ecological functions of grassland ecosystems will have to be addressed. Scientists from different disciplines of the University of Hohenheim are actively involved in grassland research. They presented their perspectives and suggested strategies for a sustainable, future-oriented grassland use.
As a special highlight the “Justus von Liebig Award” was granted by the foundation fiat panis.
