ABSTRACT
Because of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, carbon (C) sequestration in soils and in aboveground biomass and its effect on C fluxes is receiving much more attention. Compared to the base established in 1990, this protocol requires a major reduction in emissions by the next decade. Figure 1 shows strategies that can help meet the reduction in greenhouse gas fluxes. The Committee of the Parties (COP) for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCC), which is working to implement the Kyoto Protocol and to make needed changes, asked the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) for a special report addressing the protocol’s major points related to C. Article 3.4 deals with methods to establish baselines of C stocks and modalities, rules and guidelines, and how and which additional human-induced activities related to changes in greenhouse gas emissions by sources and removals by sinks in the agriculture soils and land use and forestry categories shall be added to, and subtracted from, the assigned amounts of C sequestration. This is on top of forests and land use change (Article 3.3) that may be accepted by the COP and is of special interest in relation to soil C as this is the only place other practices may be added.
