Publication: Soil Carbon in Africa / Impacts of Land Use and Agricultural Practices

INTRODUCTION

  Soils are an essential resource that must be preserved for the production of food, fiber, and biomass, as well as for water filtration, the preservation of biodiversity, and carbon storage. As carbon sinks, soils are also set to play a vital role in combating rising greenhouse gas concentrations. They are thus central to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 2 “Zero Hunger,” SDG 13 “Climate Action,” SDG 15 “Life on Land,” SDG 12 “Responsible Consumption and Production,” and SDG 1 “No Poverty.”  

This book provides an overview of African soils in all their diversity, but beyond that, it documents carbon storage capacities according to soil types and their uses in Africa. It also offers recommendations regarding data collection and interpretation, as well as options for preserving or even increasing soil carbon stocks. All researchers and development actors involved in research on the role of soil carbon are relevant to this collective synthesis. The result of a collaboration between African and European researchers, this book emphasizes the need to take into account the wide variety of African agricultural and forestry contexts to improve our understanding of soil carbon storage capacities and combat climate change.  

This book is a contribution from the Soil Carbon for Sustainable Agriculture in Africa (CASA) network. The objectives of the CASA network fall within the framework of the Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture (KJWA). Adopted in 2017 at the 23rd Conference of the Parties (COP 23), the KJWA provides a framework for strengthening the role of agriculture in international climate discussions, both for its role in reducing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere and for its necessary adaptation to climate change.

SUMMARY

Part I - Carbon Stocks and Their Spatial Distribution

Part 2 - National projections of carbon stocks 

Part 3 - Two practices for restoring soil carbon stocks

Part 4 - Carbon, soil organic matter, and sustainable agriculture 

Publishers: IRD Editions / FAO

Series: Syntheses

Publication Date: September 30, 2020