ABSTRACT
The quantity of carbon in soils is directly related to the diversity and health of soil biota. Since virtually all organic carbon sequestered in soils is extracted from the atmosphere by photosynthetic organisms and converted to complex molecules by bacteria and fungi, in synergy with insects and animals, we propose an effective and sustainable method for increasing soil organic carbon (SOC) by restoring degraded and desertified grasslands worldwide. This approach to grassland management uses livestock according to the principles of holistic planned grazing (HPG), the effectiveness of which has been demonstrated on millions of hectares on four continents, primarily in semiarid and arid areas, since the 1970s. We maintain that it has the potential to remove excess atmospheric carbon resulting from anthropogenic soil loss over the past 10,000 years as well as all industrial-era greenhouse gas (GHGs) emissions. This sequestration potential, when applied to up to five billion hectares of degraded range and agricultural soils (former wild grasslands), could, in theory, return 10 or more gigatons of excess atmospheric carbon to the terrestrial sink annually and lower GHG concentrations to preindustrial levels in decades. It is a low-tech approach that bears minimal risk of unplanned or unintended consequences that are the norm with technological fixes to large-scale environmental problems. Other benefits include restoring grassland and water catchment health and providing jobs and high-quality protein for millions of people, especially in rural communities.
