Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Kyoto Protocol Clean Development Mech-
anism. However, this type of approach
could be more focused on soil carbon and
the social, economic and ecological benefits
derived from it.
overcome these impediments and address
issues regarding communication, time de-
lays from implementation to realizing bene-
fits, and social systems.
This chapter points out the existence of
a mismatch between the problems and im-
pacts of the loss of SOC at different scales and
the available best practices at those same
scales. While most of the best practices are
related to technological aspects applied at
the local scale, there are few innovations at
the higher levels, which are fundamental to
address both the socio-economic and bio-
physical problems that arise with SOC loss
at the lower scales.
The most critical innovation needed for
improved SOC management requires bring-
ing the farm to the global and the global to
the farm level in a synergistic way, across
scales. This challenge is daunting, but simi-
lar challenges are already being tackled in
other policies with instruments such as the
Kyoto Protocol Clean Development Mech-
anism. A similar approach could be applied
to innovation in soil carbon management
globally in order to gain the multiple social,
economic and ecological benefits that are so
clearly technically attainable.
Conclusions
The benefits of maintaining and increasing
the SOC content of agricultural soils are
clear and in demand worldwide. In particu-
lar, agriculture has the potential to contrib-
ute significantly to reduce carbon emissions
from, and sequester carbon into, soils by
land management practices. In addition,
these practices increase soil fertility and the
resistance to erosion and can improve water
quality and flood protection, while enhan-
cing biodiversity and habitats. Despite the
clear benefits, the implementation of appro-
priate measures is far behind the need. Ob-
vious impediments are temporal and spatial
mismatches across scales, and discrepan-
cies between the private and social benefits
and costs of SOC management. To be success-
ful, and self-sustaining, innovations have to
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