Year of publication
1999
Excerpt
Management practices for increasing the storage of organic carbon in the soil deserve more attention in policies aimed at reducing national and global CO2-budgets, similar to re- or afforestation and bio-fuel programmes (cf. Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change). Best management practices to build-up carbon stocks in the soil, basically are those that increase the input of organic matter to the soil, and/or decrease the rate of soil organic matter decomposition. According to this review, the most appropriate management practices to increase soil C reserves are site specific.
Available best management practices will require evaluation and adaptation with reference to soil type and land use system, and this preferably by agro-ecological region. The feasibility of the various technical options available for increasing carbon stocks, in mainly agricultural soils, is discussed by agro-ecological zone.
Our exploratory scenarios, which use necessarily coarse assumptions about the potential for increased carbon sequestration in the soil, show that from 14 ±7 Pg C may be sequestered over the next 25 years - with even higher potentials over a 50 year period - if the world's ‘degraded’ and ‘stable’ Agricultural Lands are restored and/or submitted to appropriate management. When the ‘degraded’ and ‘stable’ Agricultural Lands, Extensive Grasslands and Forest Regrowth categories are considered, this would be 20 ± 10 Pg C. On average, from 0.58 to 0.80 Pg C yr-1 can be sequestered in the soils according to these scenarios; this would correspond with about 9-12% of the anthropogenic CO2-C produced annually. The scenarios assume that 'best' management and/or manipulation of a large portion of the globe's soils is possible; yet their implementation need not necessarily be feasible due to the economic, environmental and societal/cultural conditions. Mitigation of atmospheric CO2 by increased carbon sequestration in the soil, particularly makes sense in the scope of other global challenges such as combatting land degradation, improving soil quality and productivity, and preserving biodiversity.
Effective mitigation policies will likely be based on a combination of many modest and economically sound reductions, which confer added-benefits to society. In identifying these 'best practices', due attention must be paid also to any possible adverse environmental and socio-economic effects some of these practices may have.
Available best management practices will require evaluation and adaptation with reference to soil type and land use system, and this preferably by agro-ecological region. The feasibility of the various technical options available for increasing carbon stocks, in mainly agricultural soils, is discussed by agro-ecological zone.
Our exploratory scenarios, which use necessarily coarse assumptions about the potential for increased carbon sequestration in the soil, show that from 14 ±7 Pg C may be sequestered over the next 25 years - with even higher potentials over a 50 year period - if the world's ‘degraded’ and ‘stable’ Agricultural Lands are restored and/or submitted to appropriate management. When the ‘degraded’ and ‘stable’ Agricultural Lands, Extensive Grasslands and Forest Regrowth categories are considered, this would be 20 ± 10 Pg C. On average, from 0.58 to 0.80 Pg C yr-1 can be sequestered in the soils according to these scenarios; this would correspond with about 9-12% of the anthropogenic CO2-C produced annually. The scenarios assume that 'best' management and/or manipulation of a large portion of the globe's soils is possible; yet their implementation need not necessarily be feasible due to the economic, environmental and societal/cultural conditions. Mitigation of atmospheric CO2 by increased carbon sequestration in the soil, particularly makes sense in the scope of other global challenges such as combatting land degradation, improving soil quality and productivity, and preserving biodiversity.
Effective mitigation policies will likely be based on a combination of many modest and economically sound reductions, which confer added-benefits to society. In identifying these 'best practices', due attention must be paid also to any possible adverse environmental and socio-economic effects some of these practices may have.