A Strategy for Taking Soil Carbon into the Policy Arena - Soil Carbon: Science, Management and Policy for Multiple Benefits - page 60

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A Strategy for Taking Soil Carbon
into the Policy Arena

Bas van Wesemael*, Michael Stocking, Francesca Bampa,
Martial Bernoux, Christian Feller, Patrick T. Gicheru,
Philippe Lemanceau, Eleanor Milne and Luca Montanarella

Abstract
Soil organic carbon (SOC) has a relatively low profile in the policy arena. Here, we discuss the differ-
ent steps of the policy-making process as well as the actors involved at the local, national and inter-
national scale. The first part analyses the policy-making process. The policy imperative consists of
building up and maintaining SOC. The policy profile and discourse focuses on raising awareness. The
policy rationale includes the economic and social benefits as well as the soil as capital. The policy
support concerns the tools and programmes available. The second part of the chapter deals with the
actors, from the advocates and institutions to the governance . For more detailed information, the
reader is guided in each of these sections towards the chapters of the background document. Finally,
recommendations are given at each of these levels for increasing the profile of SOC in the policy arena.

Introduction

rational implementation of scientific evi-
dence through selected strategies.
Policy narratives are the specific 'stories'
that bring the importance of a particular issue
to life and public prominence. The narrative
will often employ hyperboles and selective
imagery, such as a polar bear perched on a
tiny iceberg and a sea level rise catastrophe
for major world cities. The policy discourse
is distinct from the narrative, being how
the issue refers to a wider set of values and
a way of thinking. It is the way in which the
evidence and importance of the topic is
framed, examining the language and the
people who understand the language. The
discourse must be linked to the advocates
and the institutions for the issue, a subject
discussed later in this chapter. A narrative

Policy making must be understood as a polit-
ical process as much as it is an analytical or
problem-solving process.
The policy-making process is by no means
the rational activity that it is often held up to
be in much of the standard literature. Indeed,
the metaphors that have guided policy
research over recent years suggest that it is
actually rather messy, with outcomes
occurring as a result of complicated political,
social and institutional processes which are
best described as 'evolutionary'.
(Juma and Clark, 1995)
As Clay and Schaffer (1984) point out, the
generation of policy is a chaos of purposes
and accidents. It is never a matter of the