A protocol for measurement, monitoring, reporting and verification of soil organic carbon in agricultural landscapes

Book excerpt: This document provides a conceptual framework and standard methodologies for the monitoring, reporting and verification of changes in SOC stocks and GHG emissions/removals from agricultural projects that adopt sustainable soil management practices (SSM) at farm level. It is intended to be applied in different agricultural lands, including annual and perennial crops (food, fibre, forage and bioenergy crops), paddy rice, grazing lands with livestock including pastures, grasslands, rangelands, shrublands, silvopasture and agroforestry. Although developed for projects carried out at farm level, potential users include investors, research institutions, government agencies, consultants, agricultural companies, NGOs, individual farmers or farmer associations, supply chain and other users who are interested in measuring and estimating SOC stocks and changes and GHG emissions in response to management practices. The document is an outcome of the successful Global Symposium on Soil Organic Carbon (GSOC17), which was held in Rome in March 2017. The document is of technical nature in support of the Soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration work. Its use is not mandatory but of voluntary nature.