The secretariat of the Alliance of International Science Organizationin the Belt and Road Region (ANSO) announced on December 26, 2019 that starting from January, 2020, the World Mollisols Association (WMA) will join ANSO officially.
Proposed by Xiaobing Liu, XingyiZhang, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China; Richard M. Cruse, Lee C. Burras,Iowa State University, USA; Yuriy S. Kravchenko,University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine, Ukraine; Ted Huffman,Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Ottawa, Canada; Bingcheng Si,University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada; Artigas Duran,Faculty of Agronomy, Universidad De LaRepublica, Uruguay; Guillermo A Studdert, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, UNMdP, Argentina, WMA was established in January, 2011 with Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, CAS as home.
The mission of WMA is to promote the wise application of Mollisols management practices worldwide that will improve and safeguard the quality of the soil resources to meet the continuing needs for future agricultural, environmental and societal development.Since the initiation of the WMA, five symposia pertaining to the Mollisols resource management and conservation were held inUkraine, Uruguay, Argentina and China, and two activities of field investigation were organized. Memorandum of collaboration among Mollisols institution was signed, and extensive exchanges for young scientists were carried out. A special issue titled Soil Quality and Management of World Mollisols was published in Canadian Journal of Soil Science (2012). These activities were well responded and received by research institutions and scientists in world Mollisols regions.
ANSOis an international, non-profit and non-governmental scientific organization, jointly created by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, other national scientific organizations and academies in “the Belt and Road” region and international organizations.
ANSO is committed to regional sustainable development, academic capacity building, cooperation and exchange in fundamental research and science & technology innovation, the spread and application of knowledge for societal benefit, communication and technology transfer. ANSO is committed to: (a) lead and promote science & technology cooperation; (b) provide scientific advice to governments and policy makers; (c) support joint scientific research on the key issues of global and regional concern; (d) strengthen personnel training, academic communication and the exchange of scientists for the attainment of its objectives.
With the entry of WMA into ANSO framework, WMA will continue to hold regular international symposium on specific subject of Mollisols research and management, organize productive exchange activitiesor cooperation projects, and provide strategies and recommendations to governments and policy makersfor sustainable use of the World Mollisolsresources.