Commentary

Can charcoal change the way we farm in the tropics? Up until recently the dogma was that apart from local hunter gatherer tribes, central Amazonia was virgin forest until Europeans arrived. In support of this is the incredibly biodiverse forest that currently exists, contemporary indigenous people do not farm extensively and soil that due to its chemistry cannot support large scale agriculture.

However, scientists are generally in agreement that central Amazonia was intensively farmed and had supported large populations for perhaps over a thousand years until Europeans came and spread regional pandemics of disease wiping out all trace of these large communities. In support of this is the extensive and deep distribution of biochar or Terra Preta (charcoal) and ceramic remains along the banks of the Amazon River. It appears that ancestral people had over many centuries added layer upon layer of charcoal in a "slash and char" regime that was mixed with fertilizer, soil and ceramics. Charcoal is a rich soil additive that facilitates uptake of nutrients by plants, prevents the leaching of nutrients out of the soil, increases water retention, and reduces the amount of fertilizer required. Agricultural scientists are only just realizing what an incredible technology this is and already demand in Australia for biochar has increased dramatically in some farming regions.

Proponents of the use of biochar for farming in the tropics talk of a farming revolution that will feed the poor in the humid tropics with hard to farm clay rich soils. However many environmentalists are worried that this technology will provide agriculturalists the appropriate technology to target previously unusable areas of forest thereby increasing deforestation rates.

At CREA we share guarded optimism of the technology. Used responsibly and in conjunction with other sustainable practices together with strong regulations concerning protected areas, biochar technology could indeed help local communities develop their agricultural efficiency and their standard of living, which could lead to a decrease in deforestation rates. CREA will be training farmers in this technology in the coming future together with other sustainable farming techniques and training in natural resource protection.

Biochar as a Carbon Sink

In addition, biochar can sequester carbon in the soil for hundreds to thousands of years and it has been shown to decrease N2O (Nitrous oxide) and CH4 (methane) emissions from soil, thus further reducing GHG emissions.

The production of biochar can be done using the energy from the wood mass itself therefore it needs only the initial catalyst to raise temperatures high enough for the charcoal process (pyrolysis) to begin. Since biochar is the result of plant growth, carbon has essentially been sequestered during the lifetime of the plant. By storing the biochar in the soil, the whole process is carbon negative. Several groups are campaigning to have biochar production considered under the clean development mechanism.

Find out more from Wikipedia

OTHER NEWS:

Panama Approved to become REDD ready by World Bank. The World Bank's Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) has approved REDD readiness plans (R-Plans) for Panama and Guyana, and rejected a plan for Indonesia, reports the U.N. and the Bank Information Center, an advocacy group. Read More

US House passes Landmark Climate Change Bill. The US house of representatives have passed a "landmark" climate change bill that includes provisions for domestic reductions as well as offsets through investments in reduced emissions from deforestation in tropical forest nations. Read more

Anchoring Agriculture within a Copenhagen Agreement. FAO makes three proposals for anchoring agriculture in a future climate change regime:(i) Include Agriculture in the Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) of developing countries(ii) Ensure financing for agricultural mitgation (iii) Move towards a comprehensive landscape approach (Download PDF)

REDD-Alert project launches "Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation through Alternative Landuses in Rainforests of the Tropics" was launched in Bogor, Indonesia on 25 May 2009. The project seeks to better understand the socio-economic drivers and impacts of deforestation and provide policy options for emissions reduction. With funding from the European Union, it is being implemented by the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute, the World Agroforestry Centre,  and several other national and international partners. Read more.

Farmers face tough times in a warmer world. Staples such as cassava on which millions of people depend become more toxic and produce much smaller yields in a world with higher carbon dioxide levels and more drought, Australian scientists say. Read More

Farmers’ solutions to climate change. The International Federation of Agricultural Producers (IFAP) is calling for agriculture to be included in the new "post Kyoto" climate change deal. On May 27, the Federation hosted “Climate Change: Farmers’ Solutions”, an event where farmers and stakeholders spoke on the role of agriculture in mitigating climate change.

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