Sustainable Soil Management Is More than What and How Crops Are Grown - Principles of Sustainable Soil Management in Agroecosystems - page 378

a discount to the C$15 fund payment option in order to cover the aggregation and
transaction costs.
The Alberta government provides the enabling legislation and regulations. They
also provide oversight of protocol development and approvals. Beyond that, the pri-
vate sector invests in development of protocols, aggregation of offsets and assembly
of projects, third-party verification of projects, and the bilateral sales to the regulated
emitters. A nongovernment agency, Climate Change Central, also plays a role of
facilitator and is the designated operator of the registry of the offsets. All verified
tonnes are serialized and tracked by the registry through to the retirement (used for
a compliance year) of a particular tonne. The regulator/government ministry holds
annual review meetings with the players in the market to review performance, new
developments, regulatory changes, and guidance. The amount of offsets used by
companies for compliance has been relatively consistent at about 36% of the total
annual accounts (CCC 2011). Agricultural offsets have contributed about 36% to
40% of all offsets. The most popular protocol has been the Tillage System protocol,
which acknowledges the soil carbon sequestration through implementation of no-till
practices. The Tillage System protocol has contributed over 8 M t of offsets worth
C$100 million over the last 5 years of the offset system.
The offset system has had many cobenefits beyond reducing GHG emissions and
reducing the C footprint of industries. Scientists come together in helping to develop
protocols and share a systems view of the production system under review. Science
and policy come together and integrate to form protocols and develop a market.
The private sector of aggregator and verification companies have integrated efforts
and developed streamlined systems to bring offsets to market efficiently. Farmers
have developed improved production and record systems. Very often, the financial
benefits to the farmer by adopting a protocol far exceed any offset payment for the
GHG savings portion. All players are now further along the capacity curve to be in
a better position to see and take advantage of other ecosystem goods and services
opportunities.
14.7.2 B razil : w aterSheD S erviceS in the P araná B aSin
As part of a strategy for improvement, conservation, and sustainable use of natural
resources, the Itaipú Dam Programa Cultivando Água Boa (“cultivating good water”)
has established a partnership with farmers to achieve their goals in the Paraná III
Basin located in the western part of Paraná State on the Paraguay border (ITAIPU
2011; Mello and van Raij 2006). The dam's reservoir depends on the sustainable
use and management of soil and water in the watershed/catchment for efficient elec-
tricity generation. Sediments and nutrients entering the reservoir resulting from
inappropriate land use pollute the water used by the turbines to generate electric-
ity. This phenomenon shortens the reservoir's useful life and increases the mainte-
nance costs of power-generating turbines, increasing therewith electricity generation
costs. Thus, in principle, payments could be made through a program to improve
the conditions of electricity generation. The spatial unit covered by this program is
the whole watershed/catchment. Functioning as a community, joining many farmers