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Title: Fighting climate change with grasslands
Author: Pana, Nairobi
Category: Ecology
Date: 1/13/2010
Source: Afrique en ligne
Source Website: www.afriquejet.com <http://www.africafiles.org/database/www.afriquejet.com>
African Charter Article# 24: All peoples shall have the right to a general satisfactory environment favorable to their development.
Summary & Comment: Grasslands have vast, untapped potential to mitigate climate change by absorbing and storing carbon dioxide (CO2), according to a new report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation. AB
Fighting climate change with grasslands
Grasslands have vast untapped potential to mitigate climate change by absorbing and storing Carbon Dioxide (CO2), according to a new report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). Pastures and rangelands represent a carbon sink that could be greater than forests if properly managed, the Rome-based UN agency said in a press statement obtained by PANA here Wednesday. Covering some 30 percent of the earth’s ice-free land surface and accounting for 70 percent of its agricultural land, the world’s 3.4 billion ha of grasslands can also play a major role in supporting the adapta tion and reducing the vulnerability to climate change. It plays a key role in reducing vulnerability to climate change to over one billion people who depend on livestock for a living, according to the report entitled: ‘Review of Evidence on Drylands Pastoral Systems and Climate Change’.
‘The world will have to use all options to contain average global warming within 2 degrees Celsius,” the report said. Agriculture and land use have the potential to help minimize net greenhouse gas emissions through specific practices, especially building soil and biomass carbon. ”These practices can at the same time increase the productivity and resilience of agriculture, thus contributing to food security and poverty reduction,’ said FAO Assistant Director-General Alexander Miller. Grazing lands are estimated to store 30 percent of the world’s soil carbon, in addition to the substantial amount of above-ground carbon held in trees, bushes, shrubs and grasses. But they are particularly sensitive to land degradation, which affects some 70 percent of pastures as a result of overgrazing, salinization, acidification and other processes.
Pressure on the land is also increasing in order to meet fast-growing demand for meat and dairy products. Improved management practices restoring organic matter to grassland soils, reducing erosion and decreasing losses from burning and overgrazing. A more immediately feasible target would be to place 5-10 percent of global grazing lands under carbon sequestration management by 2020, which could store 184 million tonnes of carbon a year. Socio-political and economic barriers need to be overcome too. They include land tenure, common property and privatization issues; competition from cropping; and lack of education and health services for mobile or nomadic pastoralists.
Increasing the amount of carbon sequestered in grasslands can help pastoralist populations adapt to climate change because the added carbon improves the soil’s water retention capacity and thus its ability to withstand drought. Another consideration is safeguarding biodiversity. According to some estimates, the potential biodiversity of grasslands is only slightly less than that of forests. ‘But there is also evidence that the number of animal and plant species and soil microorganisms resident in grazing lands is declining alarmingly through mismanagement, land use change and more recently climate change,’ said the report.
The report suggest that measures promoting improved grasslands management should include payment for environmental services (PES) which include both financial rewards and non-financial incentives such as capacity building and knowledge sharing.
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