CIDE researchers participated in the international conference CONSOWA 2017. The CONSOWA 2017 - I World Conference on Soil and Water Conservation in Global Change, was held at Lleida (Spain), during the days 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16 June (www.consowalleida2017.com).

During the congress, the former president of the European Society for Soil Conservation and head of the Department of Soil Degradation and Conservation of the Centro de Investigaciones sobre Desertificación, Dr. José Luis Rubio, presented his keynote presentation about the new perspectives for soil and water conservation in today global transition scenarios. During his presentation he addressed the conceptual evolution of soil and water conservation techniques over time to reinforce his point of view that the soil conservation is a very important issue to the future of our world. Thhis issue is not only important in the biodiversity maintenance, but also in the climate change mitigation and in the need to increase food production.

In the framework of the The GreenLink project (www.thegreenlink.eu), Dr. Eugenia Gimeno García presented the research: "Restore desertified areas with an innovative tree growing method to increase resilience: The Green Link Project in Valencian Community (Spain)". This research aims to demonstrate the environmental and the economic benefits of an innovative tree growing method in desertified areas. And, in this way to contribute mitigating impacts of climate change and to increase resilience of Mediterranean ecosystems, specifically in Spain, Greece and Italy.

In addition, researchers of the Eco2Tools project (www.eco2tools.es) and members of the Department of Soil Degradation and Conservation presented some of the results of their work that seeks to contribute to the sustainable use of the territory, through analysis of the causes of pollution, its possible adverse effects on the environment and, through the provision of solutions for their conservation and restoration (prioritized based on environmental and economic criteria jointly).

Finally, the researcher Julian Campo showed, through an oral presentation entitled "Forest fires as a soil contaminant driver", the direct and indirect contribution of forest fires to the chemical degradation of soils due to the increase and / or appearance of emerging pollutants particularly flame retardants (polibrominated diphenyl ethers: PBDEs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).

The conference was hosted by the Centre de Cultures i Cooperació Transfonterera (Center of Cultures and Transboundary Cooperation) located at 67 Jaume II St. in the Campus de Cappont of the University of Lleida.