Soil Conservation Faces Urgent Socio-Environmental Challenges

To exchange ideas, experiences, and insights on the challenges of soil research and conservation, experts from 10 UNAM academic entities, 17 research, teaching, and service laboratories, and 20 members of the University Network of Soil Laboratories (RULabS) participated in the 2025 Meeting of the University Network of Soil Laboratories: Weaving Networks of Knowledge and Analysis.

During the opening ceremony, Blanca Prado Pano, coordinator of PUEIS, underscored the urgency of addressing the socio-environmental challenges affecting soil, a non-renewable natural resource essential for biodiversity, the water cycle, and food production. She noted that soil degradation currently affects 60% of Mexico’s surface area and stressed the need for effective collaboration across disciplines and sectors.

The meeting provided an opportunity to strengthen collaboration among academic institutions at the Morelia campus and other UNAM departments.

In his address, Antonio González Rodríguez, coordinator of LANIES, highlighted the importance of fostering an interactive space where academics, researchers, and students could connect, identify common interests, and build a collaborative network to support research, human resource development, and education on soil conservation. He also emphasized the need to establish synergies that enhance interdisciplinary work and optimize the use of available resources at UNAM.

As part of the event, participants visited soil research laboratories at the Morelia campus, engaging with various academic entities, including the National School of Higher Studies (ENES) Morelia, the Research Center in Environmental Geography, the Institute of Geophysics Michoacán Unit, and the IIES.