FAO - Recarbonizing Global Soils

Year of publications: 2021

During the last decades, soil organic carbon (SOC) attracted the attention of a much wider array of specialists beyond agriculture and soil science, as it has proven to be one of the most cost-effective nature-based solutions to reduce and mitigate the effects of climate change. Soils are the largest terrestrial carbon pool and this soil component is one of the key factors in soil health and therefore contributes to achieving several Sustainable Development Goals, in particular Goal 15, "Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss", with SOC stocks explicitly cited in Indicator 15.3.1.

This technical manual is the first attempt to gather, in a standardized format, the existing data on the impacts of the main soil management practices on SOC content in a wide array of environments, including the advantages, drawbacks and constraints. This manual presents different sustainable soil management (SSM) practices at different scales and in different contexts, supported by case studies that have been shown with quantitative data to have a positive effect on SOC stocks and successful experiences of SOC sequestration in practical field applications.

Keyword : FAORGS

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