Prevention of Land Degradation, Enhancement of Carbon Sequestration and Conservation of Biodiversity Through Land Use Change and Sustainable Land Management with a Focus on Latin America and the Caribbean

Book excerpt: The objective of IFAD/FAO consultation was to bring together experts in order to review the state-of-the-art knowledge in carbon sequestration for the land management programmes IFAD and FAO in Latin America and the Caribbean. The main objectives addressed were: how to stabilize the atmospheric concentration of CO2; how to increase agricultural productivity and reduce rural poverty; in view of the Global Mechanism for Desertification Convention, how to activiate the flow of new funds for the benefit of Convention implementation through carbon sequestration, i.e. its binding and neutralisation. It is believed that carbon stock in soils is either stable or increasing and that it is was a major source of global carbon emission, a major cause of global climate change