A study tour focusing on soil monitoring and soil contamination prevention was organized by the SGEP project from May 05-11, with destinations in Germany and Switzerland. The Chinese delegation was led by Mr. Li Minglu, Division Director from the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) Soil Ecology and Environment Department. Delegation members included representatives from the Ecological and Environmental Monitoring Department of MEE, the China National Environmental Monitoring Centre (CNEMC), and the Foreign Environmental Cooperation Center (FECO) of MEE.

The delegation has visited the Länder Berlin, Hamburg, NRW and Bavaria in Germany and Bern in Switzerland. During workshops with German policy makers, the delegation learned about soil protection legislation and soil monitoring strategies in Germany and discussed the prevailing soil prevention and remediation technologies. A site visit to a renaturated landfill, the Energieberg in Hamburg, were used to exchange experiences of soil and groundwater control in industries. In addition, the delegation visited the environmental specimen bank in Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology Division Applied Ecology in Schmallenberg, which will presumably be of great value to the future establishment of China’s own soil specimen bank. Soil monitoring strategy in Switzerland was discussed during a visit of the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN).