Sciences au Sud n°48 - January-February-March 2009
March 2009
- Soils and their services
Soils are a precious resource for humanity owing to the irreplaceable functions they perform. They are a resource for food, fibre and materials production, they ensure rainwater storage, purification and transfer, recycle dead organic matter. They also have a role in carbon storage, thus contributing to climate regulation, more strongly even than the oceans. Soils harbour an immense biodiversity, still poorly known, which performs these services while regulating growth of plants or possibly protecting them against aggressor organisms and diseases, many of whose pathogens live within the soil.
They are also a fundamental element of culture, recognized as such in many different societies. Even though most societies, even the most advanced ones, show a surprising lack of interest in this resource.
- Interview with Esther Duflo:
Professor of Economics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and cofounder of Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), which has a branch at the Paris School of Economics. She is also the first ever holder of the Collège de France Chair “Knowledge Against Poverty”. For Sciences au Sud she gives an overview of the “experimental approach” in development economics.
