1) Prevention of Land Degradation, Enhancement of Carbon Sequestration and Biodiversity Conservation through Land Use Change and Sustainable Land Management in Latin America and the Caribbean

2) Programme for Carbon Sequestration Incentive Mechanisms to Combat Land Degradation and Desertification

1) Prevention of Land Degradation, Enhancement of Carbon Sequestration and Biodiversity Conservation through Land Use Change and Sustainable Land Management in Latin America and the Caribbean

IFAD grant

Status: This project has been implemented in the period from 1999 to 2001 and is now completed.

Project objectives :

1. Development of methodologies for estimation of present and potential land productivity (in terms of bio-mass and agricultural outputs) and organic carbon stock by agro-ecological zones and by land use systems in selected countries
2. Contribution to the elaboration of policy options and tools to provide incentives for better land use and land management and win-win options for small farmers to prevent land degradation, enhancing soil fertility, land productivity, agro-biodiversity and carbon sequestration.

The project activities consists mainly of desk and pilot studies in selected areas of Latin American countries and capacity building.

Desk studies

1. a study on Carbon Sequestration options under the clean development mechanism to address land degradation. The study analyses the origin and background of the carbon sequestration options and the clean development mechanism (CDM). It documents the outcome of the various proceedings of recent international meetings on carbon sequestration and the CDM. It reviews the ongoing programme of collaboration between IFAD and FAO on carbon sequestration and its linkage with the existing international environmental treaties, as well as the recent global environment facility (GEF) and World Bank initiative. The study is published as FAO World Soil Resources Report 92 (FAO, 2000).
2. a study on Soils Carbon Sequestration and Land Management. The study focuses on the specific role soils in tropical and dryland areas can play in carbon sequestration and on the land management strategies involved. A review is made of carbon dynamics and the fundamental role of organic matter in soil.
   To increase carbon sequestration of soils in the dryland and tropical areas as a contribution to global atmospheric CO2 mitigation new strategies and new practices in agriculture, pasture use and forestry, including conservation agriculture, agroforestry, are essential. Such practices should be facilitated in particular by the application of article 3.4 of the Kyoto Protocol or similar provision in post-Kyoto treaties covering additional activities in agriculture and forestry in developing countries through appropriate policies and should be widely promoted. Some proposals are made concerning good land management practices for croplands, pastures and agroforestry in order to promote carbon sequestration, a priority being its application to degraded lands. A method for monitoring and verifying the changes both in C sequestration and in the degree of degradation is proposed based on a soil-monitoring network (Robert et al. 2001).
3. A third study on land use in the humid tropics and carbon dioxide emission was carried out in collaboration with the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT). A review of existing studies on atmospheric carbon sequestration in the humid tropics was conducted. The result of the study could provide a valuable contribution to the formulation of strategies for a better valorization of the land use systems in the humid tropics, indicating the realistic possibilities of implementing land use changes and optimizing the multiple objectives of land users.

Development of Methodology and field testing trough Case (Field) Study

Intensive research into models and procedures for measuring Carbon stock and sequestration potential was carried out as basis for developing a methodology for assessment and generation of win-win scenarios. These methods were then tested through field study.

The studies were carried by Trent University, Canada, and with institutions in Mexico and Cuba. These studies concern the development and testing of Carbon stock assessment methods.

The study and field testing involve three sites, namely: Bacalar and Texcoco (Mexico) and Rio Cauto (Cuba). The Mexican sites are located in a dry highland, poverty-stricken degraded area in central Mexico with high population pressures on resources and a tropical semi-deciduous forest, with very low population pressures and high incidence of poverty and lower levels of environmental degradation, respectively. The Cuban site is located in the Province of Holguin in the Cauto river watershed. It is a dry tropical area with various levels of resource degradation and scarcity of financial resources.

Using data collected from each of the three sites, geo-referenced databases were created. Carbon simulation models (i.e. Roth-C 26 and CENTURY) were run using these databases. The study also investigates the effect of alternatives to slash-and-burn agriculture on carbon dynamics in two locations in Yucatan, Mexico. Scenarios of land use changes were generated through the models, and management of soil organic matter and carbon dynamics necessary for stabilizing slash-and-burn agriculture were identified. Full integration of the CENTURY model to GIS via customization (i.e. software development with Visual Basic and scripts) was realized in order to provide CENTURY with map visualization capabilities (“SOIL-C”) to run the Carbon dynamics simulation model by non-expert users. The study includes comprehensive research on measurements of plant biodiversity. Biomass and carbon stock estimation methodology were also researched; procedures for assessing bio-mass and carbon stock of relatively large areas through field measurements and remote sensing were elaborated.

Capacity Building

Undergraduates from the Universidad Autonoma Chapingo (UACh), Mexico thanks to the involvement of the Governement of the State of Mexico and the support of Trent University, were sponsored to be trained in a two-month intensive course on Carbon simulation modelling and the project methodology at the GIS and Land Resource Lab of Trent University. In Cuba, technical staff from the Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment (CITMA) in Holguin (Cauto watershed) and from the National Institute for Sugarcane Research (INICA) participated actively in the field surveys and implementation of the proposed methodology.

In Bacalar, Yucatan, and Texcoco, undergraduate students in Natural Resources and Soils were involved with local farmers in conducting field measurements.

LIST OF REPORTS PREPARED

1. Prevention of land degradation, enhancement of carbon sequestration and conservation of biodiversity through land use change and sustainable land management with a focus on Latin America and the Caribbean, 1999. World Soil Resources Report 86. 1999. FAO, Rome.
2. Sistemas de uso de la tierraen los trópicos húmedios, y la emisión y secuestro de CO2, 2000. Informes sobre recursos mundiales de suelos 86. 2000. FAO Roma.
3. Carbon Sequestration options under the clean development mechanism to address land degradation. World Soil Resources Report 92. 2000. FAO, Rome.
4. Soil Carbon Sequestration for Improved Land Management. World Soil Resources Report 96. 2001. FAO, Rome.
5. Captura de Carbono en el suelo para un mejor manejo de tierras. Informes sobre recursos mundiales de suelos 96, 2002. FAO, Roma.
6. Methodology for the Assessment of Carbon Sequestration Potential and Application in Case studies in Mexico and Cuba. Trent/FAO 2002.
7. Project Proposal: FAO GM Programme for Carbon Sequestration Incentive Mechanisms to Combat Land Degradation and Desertification.
8. Methodological Framework for the Assessment of Carbon stock and Carbon sequestration potentials and the generation of land use change scenarios. (In preparation for press)

2) Programme for Carbon Sequestration Incentive Mechanisms to Combat Land Degradation and Desertification

GM Grant

The Programme started at the beginning of 2002 for a period or one year. The main objective of the Programme is the collection, assessment and elaboration of information materials concerning the use of carbon sequestration (CS), produced by the numerous projects and case studies implemented in different dryland areas of the world. Achievement of this main goal shall be based on individual deskwork, meetings and hosting expert evaluations. The specific objectives of the Programme are:

• to provide information, decision support and policy options for the use of sinks in transferring higher carbon-based emissions from the atmosphere to the soil and biomass, thus making the Articles of the Kyoto Protocol and other carbon trading operational;
• to provide capacity building and training on identification of optimal land use and land management scenarios that would indicate realistic win-win options to sequestrate carbon, enhance land productivity to combat land degradation and desertification, and reduce poverty in dryland areas; and
• to enable the Global Mechanism to bring to member countries, GEF, UNFCC and other relevant institutions convincing arguments on carbon sequestration potentials in drylands management and combating desertification, including systems for the evaluation and monitoring of soil carbon stocks.

Activities

• Synthesis of information - including existing literature, site-based programs and on-going case studies on carbon sequestration already available on drylands countries of Africa, Asia, Latin and America and Caribbean;
  
• Identification of general criteria for the classification of land use and land management patterns across varying agro-ecological and socio-economic zones, according to their capacity to sequester carbon and reverse desertification;
• Assessment of the feasibility, economic efficiency, socio-political acceptability and institutional participation in carbon credit mechanisms and land management programs in rural poor areas;
• Organisation of expert meetings and consultation dedicated to comprehensive data collection and information exchange between FAO/GM/IFAD; national/international organisations with competencies in climate change, carbon sequestration and desertification; university/research professionals; other institutions, authorities, policy-makers and stakeholders, available and interested to share their experience in carbon exchange programs and institutional-policy incentives;
• Organisation of internet conferences, training workshops and study tours for policy makers and implement filed visits and participatory appraisals for farmers and practitioners and others involved in National Action Plan (NAP) preparation and implementation of Rio-Conventions;

Implementation

The Programme is being implemented in collaboration with Universities, research institutions and departments of Agriculture and Environment of the Ministries of Agriculture, Science, Technology and Environment of governments in selected dryland countries.

Outputs

The expected outputs of the Programme are:

• a large knowledge base and information materials for enabling policy support to ongoing negotiations and further funding to co-operation programs enhancing carbon sequestration and reversing desertification of drylands;
• information, decision support and strategy options for the use of soil and land use sinks to transfer or acquire emission reduction and the monitoring of soil carbon stocks as a basis for verification and certification of CO2 reductions from land use changes and soil management improvements;
• advocacy to support the interests of countries who would like to participate in carbon trading programmes for dryland development and the UNFCCC and IPCC in establishment and continuation of carbon sequestration oriented climate change mitigation programs; and
• region and country specific concept notes and project profiles (3 to 4) to be financed by interested donors

Progress

1) Advisory Committee (AC) established
- to review the working plan and activities of the programme
- to ensure the quality of the information in the knowledge base;
- to revise and clear the technical reports and other documents and information products.

2) Work Programme prepared
The outputs of the Programme are to be organized in the form of a Knowledge Base. The Knowledge Base includes a Guideline with two technical documents. One will present comprehensive analysis of the scientific aspects and potentiality of CS in drylands across different land use and management systems. The other will include an overview of the policies and clarification of the different economic incentives (explaining what are they and how they work and giving examples) regarding soil CS. The knowledge base will also comprise a SC database and query tool, country project profiles and an advocacy brochure. Additional activities will include training workshops for selected persons from partner institutions in developing countries.

See Work Programme detail in PDF (110kb).