Soil organic carbon (the carbon stored in soil organic matter) is crucial to soil health, fertility and ecosystem services, including food production – making its preservation and restoration essential for sustainable development. Soils with high carbon content are likely to be more productive and better able to filter and purify water. Soil organic carbon plays a big role in climate change, presenting both a threat and an opportunity to help meet the targets of the Paris Agreement.

The degradation of one third of the world’s soils has released up to 78 Gt of carbon into the atmosphere. Further damage to soil carbon stocks through poor land management would hamper efforts to limit global temperature rise this century and so avoid increased floods, droughts and other negative climate change impacts. As the climate changes, it is likely that more carbon will be lost to the atmosphere than be sequestered into the soil, resulting in a land carbon–climate feedback loop that could further accelerate climate change. Of particular concern are hotspots such as peatlands, permafrost and grasslands, which contain the highest amount of soil organic carbon.

By sustainably managing soils and rehabilitating degraded land, we can mitigate climate change and improve food security. Carbon sequestration, monitoring and maintenance in soils can also enhance climate resilience, as a healthy amount of SOC can help plants cope. Soil rehabilitation in agricultural and degraded soils can remove carbon from the atmosphere. However, SOC sequestration is a slow and reversible process. SSM practices need to be adopted over the long-term. Governments now need to support land users to implement them. RECSOIL and the Voluntary Guidelines for Sustainable Soil Management constitute a tool to guide such a process.

The FAO's Recarbonization of global agricultural soils (RECSOIL) initiative partners with national and local governments, soil laboratories, farmer organizations, farmers, and other actors across the agricultural sector to mobilize carbon sequestration through sustainable soil management. Click here to learn more..