Land degradation assessment in drylands LADA and carbon sequestration

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Land degradation assessment in drylands (LADA)
and carbon sequestration
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World Drylands (P/ET0.05 to 0.065)
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Drylands characteristics

• Complexity, variability, resilience,
  vulnerability, extensive, changing (continual
  transition), poverty.
• Superficies of drylands in sub-Saharan Africa
  30? (TERRASTATS, FAO)

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Interdependency of Services for human well-being
in drylands

• Provisioning services food, fibre, fuels,
  timber, minerals, pharmaceuticals, fresh water
• Regulating services maintenance of biodiversity,
  climate regulation, hydrological regulation,
  decomposition of wastes
• Cultural and social services spiritual and
  social values, aesthetic values,migration/transhum
  ance
• Supporting services soil formation, primary
  production, pollinisation of plants, provision of
  habitat, carbon sequestration

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Threaten drylands

• 70 degraded at various levels of severity (UNEP,
  2003)
• Degraded lands with variable extent according to
  countries
• Few data exist on extent, causes, driven forces,
  direct and indirect consequences and trends of
  land degradation
• Need for assessment and monitoring of the
  phenomenon

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LADA PARTNERSHIP At
national and regional levels National CCD focal
institutions, land and water divisions Regional
bodies of UNCCD, CST, TPNs At international level
The LADA Secretariat is hosted by FAO and can be
contacted at LADA Secretariat, AGLL Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations ,
FAO , Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00100 Rome,
Italy Fax[phone] Phone[phone] E-ma
il http//LADA.virtualcentre.org
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LADA Objectives

• Develop and test an effective assessment
  methodological framework for land degradation in
  drylands
• 2. Assess (quantitative, qualitative and
  georeferenced) land degradation at global,
  national and sub-national levels to
• Identify the Status, driving forces and
  impacts as well as trends of land degradation in
  drylands in all its components including physical
  resources (such as soils, water, vegetation,
  biodiversity) and human resources (livelihood
  systems, cultural societies),

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LADA Objectives (ctnd)

• Identify and characterize the hotspots the
  areas with greatest land constraints, high risks
  or high level of on going land degradation of
  such areas and areas under risks of degradation,
  drought or floods,
• Identify and characterize the bright spots
  the areas where the degradation has been slowed
  or reversed through conducive policies and
  actions (area of success priority area for most
  cost-effective rehabilitation of fragile lands),
• 3. Build national, regional and global assessment
  capacities for land degradation to assist in the
  design, planning and monitoring of interventions
  to mitigate land degradation and establish
  sustainable land use and management practices

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CS Potential in drylands

• According to FAO, 2002
• Quantities of carbon in drylands soils (Xerosols
  and Yermosols)7kg/m2
• Stock of carbon in Arid AEZ 4kg/m2 for 1m depth
• According to Woomer and al. 2003
• C stock in the Sahel 20,6tC/ha for 40cm depth

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Degraded drylands and Carbon

• Hot Spots area of significant loss of C due to
  land degradation
• Bright Spots area of good potential for carbon
  sequestration through soil rehabilitation,
  agricultural intensification and environment
  protection

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Hot and bright spots
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How to measure Changes In land degradation and CS
Time
Biomass
S.O.M. Productivity/Carbon sequestrat.
Land use change
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SOIL-C Soil Carbon Spatial Decision Support
System from customizing the CENTURY model
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Impact of land rehabilitation on CS(increasing
of bright spots)___________________________

• According to IPCC (2000)
• 0,25 t C/ha/year with an estimate potential of 3
  to 7 Mt C/year respectively for 2010 and 2040 in
  drylands

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Estimate of CS in arid zones according to soil
management techniques (Lal, 1999 in FAO 2002)

• Activity Quantity (t/ha/year)
• Conservation tillage (0,1 0,2)
• Mulch and soil cover (4-6 Mg/ha/year) (0,05 -
  0,1)
• Conservation agriculture (0,15 0,3)
• Compost (20Mg/ha/year) (0,1 0,3)
• Fertilisers management (1,0 0,3)
• Water management (0,05 0,1)
• Pastures zones (0,05 0,10)

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Advantages of carbon management in drylands

• Local level improvement of soil
  quality,decreasing of land degradation,
  improvement of food security
• National levelimprovement of agricultural
  productivity and environment quality
• Global levelincreasing of biodiversity and
  positive contribution to global climate

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LADA contribution to CS

• i) accurate evaluation and estimation of land
  degradation in connection with the evaluation of
  carbon stocks harmonized approach and same level
  of precision between countries, determination of
  level of severity of land degradation and risks
  of carbon loss
• (ii) identification of appropriate techniques for
  land rehabilitation and enhancement of carbon
  stocks measures in carbon stocks changes with
  land rehabilitation assessment, inclusion of
  socio-economic factors

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LADA CS

• (iii) Data on relationship between land
  degradation-biodiversity-carbon sequestration
• (iv) Provision of socio-economic data on dryland
  for the future development of carbon market at
  farmers communities level.

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Activities/Perspectives

• Pilot sites studies (in Senegal)
• Web Sites www.fao.org/ag/al/agll/lada/default.stm
  
• www.lada.virtualcentre.org/pagedisplay/display.asp
  
• www.fao.org/ag/agl/agll/carbonsequestration
• Regional LADA Workshop with 17 African countries
• Pipeline of regional projects concept note (from
  the Dakar workshop, March 2003 with USGS/Eros
  data Center and CSE)
• Formulation of FAO country TCP projects for a
  smooth implementation of LADA phase 2 funded by
  GEF