Soil Carbon: a Critical Natural Resource – Wide-scale Goals, Urgent Actions - Soil Carbon: Science, Management and Policy for Multiple Benefits - page 21

aims at enhancing food productivity while
reducing greenhouse gas emissions and en-
hancing SOC sequestration (FAO, 2013).
In order to enhance water quality and
quantity, increases in SOC must be targeted
to restore hydrological pathways, improve
water infiltration management and prevent
water pollution (Ahrens et al ., 2008; Thomas
et al ., 2009). Soil and water conservation
measures are required to accompany SOC
management practices, particularly on slop-
ing lands.
In order to increase immediate energy
production to meet local demands, we have
to focus simultaneously on maximizing the
yield of bioenergy crops while preserving or
restoring natural ecosystems and soil carbon
stocks. Policies on biofuels and the installa-
tion of instrumentation for harvesting alter-
native energy (e.g. wind and solar power)
need to be evaluated in light of their effects
on soil carbon. For example, the initial con-
version of land for biofuel production can
result in immediate carbon loss, and the
establishment of large deployments of solar
and wind power could affect soil carbon
storage (Anderson-Teixeira et al ., 2012).
In order to enhance biodiversity , new
management practices that minimize damage
and stimulate soil biological activity (e.g. re-
duced tillage, incorporation of plant residues,
cover crops, careful pesticide use) must be
applied. In the longer term, we must have
sufficient understanding about the global
distribution and role of soil biodiversity in
ecosystem function, in particular carbon dy-
namics, to develop and implement sound
guidance and policy. Efforts should be tar-
geted towards the protection of ecological
hotspots, habitat restoration and maintaining
genetic and functional soil biodiversity (Carney
and Matson, 2005; Pickles et al ., 2012).
To address climate change and propose
climate mitigation strategies, SOC losses
must be minimized through appropriate land-
use practices. These include slowing and
eventually eliminating the conversion of
natural ecosystems such as forest to agricul-
tural uses, slowing and eventually eliminating
the use of drained peat soils and slowing
and eventually eliminating the use of peat
as an energy source and a raw material for

horticultural substrates. Increases in soil
carbon stocks can be achieved through the
careful management of agricultural soils, in-
cluding the use of reduced tillage, through
the implementation of paludicultures on
organic soils and through afforestation
(Smith et al ., 2008; Tschakert et al ., 2008;
Joosten, 2012).
Furthermore, efforts should be directed
to communicate better in new ways to the
general public and policy makers the value
of increasing SOC. Thus, there is a high pri-
ority to increase the communication and
education of SOC to permeate into the policy
realm and the action plans of local managers/
farmers. These actions could lead to public
and transparent reports that communicate
the state (gains or losses) of SOC and address
needs accurately at the local or national
scale. In fact, this simple reporting mechan-
ism could be seen as an analogue of the gross
domestic product (GDP) used as an economic
development indicator. Such mechanism
will require new monitoring, verification
and reporting schemes for the regulatory,
research and economical purposes of soil
carbon. This chapter highlights that one of
the most significant underlying reasons for
lack of investment in SOC is the mismatch
between short- and long-term objectives in
land management (see also Chapter 4, this
volume). It follows that irrespective of the
favourable long-term economic case for in-
vestment in soil carbon, such investments
are unlikely to come about without policy
intervention. Soil carbon could be promoted
through the payment of ecosystem schemes
to reduce the intertemporal trade-offs between
short- and long-term objectives. Ultimately,
we emphasize that any of these priorities
cannot be attained without extensive educa-
tion efforts on the benefits of SOC to increase
public understanding of the need to protect
soils around the world.

Conclusions

This chapter has highlighted the need for
managing SOC to optimize the mix of five
essential services - the provisioning of food,
energy and water, regulating climate and