December 23, 2024 06:55 pm (IST)
Follow us:
facebook-white sharing button
twitter-white sharing button
instagram-white sharing button
youtube-white sharing button
Cylinder blast at a temple in Karnataka's Hubbali injures nine people | Kuwait PM personally sees off Modi at airport as Indian premier concludes two-day trip | Three pro-Khalistani terrorists, who attacked a police outpost in Gurdaspur, killed in an encounter | Who is Sriram Krishnan, an Indian-American picked by Donald Trump as US AI policy advisor? | Mohali building collapse: Death toll rises to 2, many feared trapped for 17 hours | 4-year-old killed after speeding car driven by a teen hits him in Mumbai | PM Modi attends opening ceremony of Arabian Gulf Cup in Kuwait | Jaipur gas tanker crash: Toll touches 14, 30 critical | Arrest warrant against former cricketer Robin Uthappa over 'PF fraud' | PM Modi emplanes for a visit to Kuwait
Photo: World Bank/Arne Hoel

UN, China open door to carbon financing for herders

| | May 31, 2014, at 05:30 pm
New York, May 31 (IBNS): The United Nations agricultural agency on Friday announced that with Chinese partners, it has developed a new methodology which relies on soil sampling or computer modeling to measure the impact that restored grasslands have in mitigating climate change, and to help farmers tap into carbon markets.
Farmers rely on grasslands to feed the livestock, yet poor land management has left large swathes of the world’s grasslands degraded – an environmental problem which also has direct implications for livestock-dependent communities, the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) on Friday said.
 
Measuring the impact of restoring grasslands – through more sustainable grazing practices and forage production – to link grasslands restoration with international climate financing schemes has been difficult. But this has been the focus of a partnership between the FAO and the Chinese Academy of Agriculture Science (CAAS), the World Agroforestry Center (ICRAF) and China’s Northwest Institute of Plateau Biology (NWIPB).
 
The UN agency announced that the tool created through this partnership has now been sufficiently tested, and endorsed by the non-profit Verified Carbon Standard (VCS), a voluntary greenhouse gas accounting programme used by projects around the world to verify and issue carbon credits in voluntary emissions markets.
 
According to findings from the case study in Northern China, improved practices could help herders sequester an average of 3 tCO2 (tons of carbon dioxide) per hectare of grassland each year over the next 20 years.
 
These practices include, for example, reduction and rotation of grazing pressure on overstocked sites and the sowing of improved pastures and fodder crops.
 
“Now that the tool has won the certification needed for recognition by international carbon markets, project developers and farmers have a new opportunity to implement grasslands restoration projects at a meaningful scale, improving the productive potential of their grasslands and helping to reverse historic carbon losses,” said Henning Steinfeld of FAO.
 
Returns from the carbon finance and other mitigation funds can be invested in further restoring the long-term health of the lands upon which herders and grazers depend and in building up marketing associations to improve their incomes, raising families incomes and improving household food security,” Steinfeld added.
 
CAAS and FAO are continuing to work together to identify opportunities to pilot this methodology and upscale its use in China and beyond, according to the UN agency.
 
 
 (Herding livestock in Ta Kuti village, Nigeria. Photo: World Bank/Arne Hoel)

Support Our Journalism

We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism

IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.

Support objective journalism for a small contribution.
Related Images
Xi Jinping, Putin in Russia Mar 22, 2023, at 08:26 pm