The Carbon Benefits Project is developing a web-based measuring, monitoring and modelling system to assess the amount of carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions that are produced and stored in soil and vegetation by various activities. The model will look at agriculture, forestry and rangeland to address issues related to sustainable development.
The Carbon Benefits Project is being led and funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) at the University of East Anglia and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and involves Colorado State University, the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF), Michigan State University and national partners in a number of countries.
“We need to be able to track the change in carbon levels above and below ground, but at the moment there is no standardised, cost-effective and simple method to do this,” said Prof Stocking from the Overseas Development Group. “A system is needed that can be applied to and measure the carbon impact of all types of projects, whether they are encouraging small scale enterprises, such as furniture making and carving, or planting forests and crops. Natural resource management projects claim to have carbon benefits and organisations need to be able to demonstrate how their investments achieve global environment benefits.”
Focusing on cropland, grazing lands, agro-forestry and forestry, the system will enable forest managers, farmers and other land users to look at the present carbon situation above and below ground and at alternative land management scenarios. It will help them select agricultural and agro-forestry options to lower carbon emissions, increase the removal of carbon from the atmosphere and its storage in vegetation and soil, and improve related environmental, social, and economic benefits. It would also allow managers of new projects to look at the carbon impact their activities would have and the best way to manage that.
Read more about the project here.
