UNEP Year Book Highlights Key Emerging Issues – Soil Carbon.
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Monday, February 13, 2012.
http://www.unep.org/newscentre/Default.aspx?DocumentID=2667&ArticleID=9027&l=en


“Nairobi, 13 February 2012: Dramatic improvements in the way the world
manages its precious soils will be key to food, water and climate
security in the 21st century.

According to the United Nations Environment Programme's (UNEP) Year Book
2012, 24 per cent of the global land area has already suffered declines
in health and productivity over the past quarter century as a result of
unsustainable land-use. It highlights assessments indicating that some
kinds of conventional and intensive agriculture are triggering soil
erosion rates some 100 times greater than the rates at which nature can
form soil in the first place.

By 2030, without changes in the way land is managed, over 20 per cent of
terrestrial habitats such as forests, peatlands and grasslands in
developing countries alone could be converted to cropland - aggravating
losses of vital ecosystem services and biodiversity.

There could also be profound implications for climate change. Soils
contain huge quantities of carbon in the form of organic matter that in
turn binds the nutrients needed for plant growth and allows rainfall to
penetrate into underground aquifers.

Since the 19th century, an estimated 60 per cent of the carbon stored in
soils and vegetation has been lost as a result of land use changes, such
as, clearing land for agriculture and cities. By some estimates, the top
one metre of the world's soils store around 2,200 Gigatonnes (Gt or
billion tonnes) of carbon - three times the current level held in the
atmosphere.

If existing patterns of land management continue, increasing amounts of
this carbon could be released to the atmosphere, aggravating global
warming linked to the burning of fossil fuels.

The UNEP Year Book 2012, launched on the eve of the 12th Special Session
of the UNEP Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum,
points to the world's peatlands as an area of special concern. The
draining of super carbon-rich peatlands is currently producing more than
2 Gt of CO2 emissions annually - equal to around six per cent of
man-made greenhouse gas emissions.

Today the degradation of peatlands is happening at a rate 20 times
greater than the rate at which the peat, and thus the carbon, is
accumulated."

"The thin skin of soil on the Earth's surface is often one of those
forgotten ecosystems but it is among the most important to the future
survival of humanity. The Year Book cites many options for improved,
sustainable management such as no-till policies to ones that can assist
in productive agriculture without draining peatlands," said Achim
Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director.”

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Dr. Ann C. Wilkie Tel: (352)392-8699
Soil and Water Science Department Fax: (352)392-7008
University of Florida-IFAS
P.O. Box 110960 E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Gainesville, FL 32611-0960
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Campus location: Environmental Microbiology Laboratory (Bldg. 246).
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BioEnergy and Sustainable Technology Society
http://grove.ufl.edu/~bests/
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