A Strategy for Taking Soil Carbon into the Policy Arena - Soil Carbon: Science, Management and Policy for Multiple Benefits - page 61

can be part of a discourse if it reinforces in
the policy maker's mind that here is an
issue that demands attention and challenges
current values and ideals. The narrative is a
presentational challenge; how to make the
'story' so appealing and demanding that it
spontaneously generates a policy uptake.
A first step in developing a strategy to
take a scientifically derived priority issue
such as soil organic carbon (SOC) into the pol-
icy arena is to decide on the discourse. Scien-
tific evidence on its own is rarely sufficient; it
is the impact, who is affected, how they are
impacted and the consequences of inaction
that grab the attention. The discourse matters
because the environment is a social construc-
tion - as well as a physical entity - and issues
about the environment such as soil carbon are
contested, not just in their importance but
also in their relevance to society and human
well-being (Feindt and Oels, 2005).
Because SOC has a low profile at all
levels - local, national and international -
the context for the narrative and discourse
has to be chosen carefully. Some of the evi-
dence that is important for different con-
texts is covered elsewhere in this volume; it
includes SOC:
• as a smart indicatorfor soil quality
(Google maps, smart phone);
• ashotspotsandthresholdsforsoildeg-
radation, soil and water conservation
and belowground biodiversity;
• asacomponentofdiversiiedagricultural
systems, adapted to climate change;
• inmonitoringandverifyingmechan-
isms for climate change mitigation;
• asriskandopportunitiesforinputsand
residue management (fertilizer, chem-
icals, etc.) applied in agriculture;
• asacontributortofoodsecurityand
sustainable development;
• asaprotectorofbiodiversity-asasub-
strate for soil biodiversity and as a sup-
port for aboveground biodiversity.

diving into the murky waters of the com-
plex arrangements for governance at vari-
ous levels, from local to global. This chapter
summarizes briefly the data and scientific
demands for an SOC strategy into policy; it
then examines the components of this
strategy, setting out a framework for main-
streaming SOC issues in environmental and
sustainable development policy. The chap-
ter is structured according to: (i) what needs
to be achieved by policy, i.e. imperative, pro-
file and discourse, rationale and support;
and (ii) who are the main stakeholders, i.e.
advocates and institutions and governance
( Table 5.1 ) . Each of these topics is discussed
in a different section at three scale levels,
i.e. local, national and international.

Policy

Policy imperative

Introduction

In the developing and also in developed
countries, farmers are faced with serious
problems of sustainable soil management
such as market forces, limited access to in-
puts and expertise, poverty and lack of cap-
ital. In developed countries, for example,
plant productivity is high due to large use
and sometimes excess of inputs (fertilizers,
pesticides and energy), but often with low
organic restitutions to soil. This has nega-
tive consequences for the environments,
e.g. for air and water pollution, soil erosion,
etc. (Lal et al ., 2003).
For centuries, many farming systems
have relied on the soil organic matter (SOM)
to sustain production. These systems were
maintaining a stable SOM pool in soils by ap-
plying a closed farming system with a regular
return of organic matter to the soil through
manure, crop residues, kitchen waste, etc.
However, with the adoption of industrialized
farming systems implying increasing intensi-
fication, land degradation and climate change,
the quantity of SOM has declined rapidly,
thereby threatening the capacity of the land
to produce sustainably (Lal, 2004; Zdruli
et al ., 2004; Lal et al ., 2006). In developing

It is, therefore, imperative that issues in-
volving SOC must achieve a higher and more
prominent profile, with their champions
and self-evident financial worth. A strategy
for taking SOC into the policy arena must
have this high-profile springboard before