ORCaSa webinar dedicated to MRV systems for soil organic carbon

ORCaSa partners organised a webinar dedicated to MRV (Monitoring, Reporting & Verification) systems for soil organic carbon (5 July 2023). The aim was to present the MRV system and the approaches and methodologies applied today. The webinar was attended by nearly 70 online participants from all over the world. 

Suzanne Reynders (INRAe), ORCaSa coordinator, emphasised that “We should work together because time is running out with climate change underway.” The webinar was designed to be interactive, so that attendees could share their  ideas, experiences and good practices for consideration in ORCaSa's work. The project team is currently working on a review of MRV initiatives at international level with a view to future harmonisation. The review considers not only agricultural soils, but also forest and wetland areas.

“The tools and approaches available today are very diverse, which is why it is important to establish a reliable and standardised framework for MRV”, explained Eric Ceschia, ORCaSa partner and INRAE scientist working at the Center for Spatial Studies of the BIOsphere (CESBIO).

After presenting the different contexts in which the MRV system will be applied (national inventories, carbon offsetting programmes, common agricultural policy, etc.), the question of "buildings blocks" was addressed and participants were invited to share their day-to-day practices.

      Mentimeter question: Which MRV building blocks do you frequently use? 

Subsequently, Fenny van Egmond and Gerard Heuvelink, both from ISRIC - World Soil Information, presented a proposal for a generic MRV framework as considered in the evolving review (see top image).

Importantly, the webinar also provided an opportunity for announcing the launch of the International Research Consortium (IRC) on soil carbon, in autumn 2023, and to present IRC's objectives and ambition to become a global reference for the alignment of research and innovation activities on soil carbon.