Forest Soils
Forest soils constitute a large pool of carbon and releases of carbon from this pool, caused by anthropogenic activities such as deforestation, may significantly increase the concentration of greenhouse gas (GHG) in the atmosphere. Under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, countries must estimate and report GHG emissions and removals, including changes in carbon stocks in all five pools (above- and belowground biomass, dead wood, litter and soil carbon) and associated emissions and removals from land use, land-use change and forestry activities according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s good practice guidance. Tropical deforestation represents nearly 25 percent of total anthropogenic GHG emissions worldwide. Deforestation, forest degradation or changes in land management practices can cause releases of carbon from soil to the atmosphere. For these reasons, reliable estimates of soil organic carbon stock and stock changes are needed for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation and GHG reporting under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
The Government of Tanzania, together with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the financial support of the Government of Finland, have implemented a forest soil carbon monitoring program to estimate soil carbon stock, using both survey and modelling-based methods.
Read more about this topic: Soil Carbon
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