From Potential to Implementation: An Innovation Framework to Realize the Benefits of Soil Carbon - Soil Carbon: Science, Management and Policy for Multiple Benefits - page 47

4 From Potential to Implementation:
An Innovation Framework to Realize
the Benefits of Soil Carbon

Roger Funk*, Unai Pascual, Hans Joosten, Christopher Duffy,
Genxing Pan, Newton la Scala, Pia Gottschalk, Steven A. Banwart,
Niels Batjes, Zucong Cai, Johan Six and Elke Noellemeyer

Abstract
This chapter addresses the mismatch between existing knowledge, techniques and management
methods for improved soil carbon management and deficits in its implementation. The paper gives a
short overview of the evolution of the concept of soil carbon, which illustrates the interactions between
scientific, industrial, technical, societal and economic change. It then goes on to show that sufficient
techniques are available for the large-scale implementation of soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration.
A subsequent analysis of the bottlenecks that prevent implementation identifies where issues need to
be addressed in order to enable robust, integrated and sustainable SOC management strategies.

Introduction

between recognition of the positive aspects of
these innovations and the extent of their im-
plementation. We might ask: what are the
reasons for delays in implementation? Obvi-
ous impediments are temporal and spatial
mismatches across scales; that is, long time
delays and the large physical distance be-
tween the places of implementation and the
beneficial effects that result. Discrepancies
between private and social benefits and the
costs of SOC management are also crucial. To
be successful, innovations must pass certain
thresholds in the rate of adoption in order to
be self-sustaining. The widespread adoption
of an innovation is influenced strongly by
cultural, social and economic factors such as
issues surrounding communication and ways
of managing the time delay associated with
the achievement of benefits (Rogers, 1962).

In this chapter, we address the need for the
wide-scale implementation of a strategy for
improved soil organic carbon (SOC) manage-
ment. Such a strategy can be denoted gener-
ally as innovation, but would also include
new methods of governance. In this paper,
we define innovation as the improved use of
novel but readily available methods or tech-
nologies. In addition, it includes a change of
the current behaviour by managing SOC in a
different way. A broad range of SOC manage-
ment methods and techniques has been
proposed and tested. Many have already
demonstrated their applicability and advan-
tages, including implementation strategies
(Reicosky, 2003; WOCAT, 2010; Batjes, 2011;
FAO, 2011). However, there is still a gap