How to recarbonize global soils? The most complete collection of recommended management practices compiled in a technical manual for practitioners is about to be launched
Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) is one of the main parameters determining soil health. Land uses and management practices that maintain or increase SOC stocks are being recognized as beneficial for climate change mitigation and adaptation, food security and nutrition, Land Degradation Neutrality, and biodiversity conservation. Although many practices are known for maintaining and increasing SOC, responses vary depending on local climate and soil type. Soil management practices should therefore, be selected to suit each specific context. Due to the urgency to unlock the potential of SOC, a Global Symposium on Soil Organic Carbon (GSOC17) was organized in March 2017. The outcome document recommended the preparation of a technical manual that identify, compile and highlight management practices and land use systems that promote the preservation and/or enhancement of SOC stocks.
The publication “Recarbonizing global soils. A technical manual of recommended management practices” was developed as a response to the GSOC17 Outcome Document. It presents different sustainable soil management (SSM) practices, at different scales and in different contexts, supported by case studies and scientific data that have a positive effect on SOC stocks, as well as successful experiences of SOC sequestration in practical field applications. This technical manual will be launched on 8 September 2021 - the first day of the Ninth Global Soil Partnership Plenary Assembly.
*SSM: According to FAO’s ITPS, soil management is sustainable if the supporting, provisioning, regulating, and cultural services provided by soil are maintained or enhanced without significantly impairing soil functions that enable those services or biodiversity.
The manual started to take shape in late 2017 through an open call for experts launched by the Intergovernmental Technical Panel on Soils (ITPS) and the GSP Secretariat and through an online survey on beneficial practices for SOC management that should be included in it. With more than 200 expressions of interest and 82 survey responses received, a first draft of the manual was initially presented for review to a scientific committee composed of GSP/ITPS, FAO/Forestry, Livestock, Plant Production and Protection departments, the Scientific and Technical Committee (STC) of the 4 per 1000 initiative, and UNCCD/Science Policy Interface (SPI). A second round of revision took place in 2020 with more authors invited. Thus, the final handbook was produced through the efforts of 272 specialists from 46 countries and the EU, peer-reviewed, compiling in a single compendium all SOC management practices that have proven efficient to date, or have the potential to be efficient in maintaining or enhancing SOC storage, within the SSM framework.
The manual is structured in three sections: practices (widely applied soil management techniques), hotspots (behaviour and dynamics of those special soils crucial for SOC storage) and case studies (reporting on specific successful practices in specific contexts) from all over the world in all types of landscapes. The manual provides a general overview of (1) the important SOC stocks locations in the world, (2) the main SSM practices that positively impact SOC storage and (3) concrete evidences of successful cases in which SSM practices positively influenced SOC storage.
The need to recognise standardised and locally adapted soil management practices with proven effectiveness in maintaining/increasing SOC is even more important in the context of global change, for which the boundary conditions (climate, land use) of soil carbon fluxes will change. In this context, the effects of practices traditionally used to promote soil fertility through SOC management may become more uncertain and the application of SSM practices will be crucial to ensure the maintenance of soil quality and the provision of soil ecosystem services. This handbook is also one of the elements of the RECSOIL, the mechanism that accounts for carbon credits and SSM practices in agriculture as one of the tools to mitigate climate change through soil carbon sequestration, as promoted by the Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture at COP 23 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
In summary, this manual is the first attempt to gather, in a standardized format, the existing data on the impacts of the main soil management practices on SOC content in a wide array of environments including the advantages, drawbacks and constraints.
Indeed, it shows the myriad of solutions that exist today, and demonstrates that moving towards a new agricultural model that is more environmentally and soil friendly, productive and resilient is possible worldwide. It also shows that SSM can be adapted to the diversity of existing ecosystems, climates, soil types and people.