From Potential to Implementation: An Innovation Framework to Realize the Benefits of Soil Carbon - Soil Carbon: Science, Management and Policy for Multiple Benefits - page 55

Depending on the location on the 'deg-
radation curve' ( Fig. 4.2 ), innovative and
more demanding types of interventions that
combine financial, social and political ac-
tions will be needed to bring back SOC to its
original levels or to avoid further degrad-
ation. The timescales required for these pro-
cesses are yet unknown, but certainly are
longer than the planning horizons of cur-
rent environmental programmes.

Adoption of carbon sequestration tech-
nologies at the farm level (section above
'What ought to be done? A summary of best
practices') needs a combination of access to
information, technologies, financial incen-
tives and capable personnel to link the
benefits of individual farmers to those of the
adjacent scale(s) ( Fig. 4.3 ) and to make the
farmer's direct advantages compatible with
his own long-term interests. Such schemes
would offer financial and technical support
to the farms, while bringing environmental
services from the farm scale to other higher
scales ( Fig. 4.3 ) .
Such schemes could require farm-scale
monitoring with low-cost sensors to provide
a direct measure of the state of SOC, which
could then be processed at a regional level
in order to follow stock changes at regional,
national and global scales. At the national
scale, the evaluation of data from different
regions could drive soil and water conser-
vation practices to achieve agroecologi-
cal goals at the regional level, whereas glo-
bal financial support could be provided to
those who have achieved SOC accumulation
through adaptations. By means of trade agree-
ments, international organizations would
return to countries not only financial sup-
port but also knowledge and technology to
stimulate national actions for SOC conser-
vation. This support, received by nations,
should go back to the farm level, as tech-
nical and financial aid.

Which Innovations are Needed?

In order to realize the potential of SOC bene-
fits, innovations are required. Innovation, as
defined here, differs from invention, as it
includes the use of existing knowledge, ap-
proaches or technologies, assembling them
in a new or more efficient way. Hence, in-
novation does not necessarily require the
creation of new methods or technologies but
can result from new ideas of how to inte-
grate and assemble existing approaches in a
novel, more effective way. In many degraded
sites, SOC stocks could be reverted towards
their natural levels once appropriate known
technologies presented in the section above
'What ought to be done? A summary of best
practices' are applied. Here, we discuss how
to achieve enhanced soil carbon accumula-
tion by the improved integration of existing
management practices and policies.

A

+

Prevention

++++

B

+++
++

Mitigation

+++++

Rehabilitation

C

Time

Fig. 4.2. Initial societal implementation investment cost (+) of sustainable land management interventions
needed to restore SOC and reduce GHG emissions. (From WOCAT, 2007.)