Glad Tidings! A Soil Carbon Methodology is Born

(Glossary below)'

There is a Soil Carbon Methodology about to be ratified by the VCS - the most important standard in the voluntary market. This will mean many things: 1. We can start using it to design projects. 2. We can adapt parts of it to use with our CFI meths. 3. We can apply to the DOIC to have it recognised under the CFI.

The Earth Partners (TEP) have announced that they are the proponents of the comprehensive Soil Carbon Quantification Methodology. It "has been tested and refined on-the-ground on over twenty sites across more than four countries. The method has completed a thorough technical peer-review process and will be the first soil carbon method to complete an independent validation under the Verified Carbon Standard, and it being implemented in a USDA Conservation Innovation Grant.

The method is measurement-based, more accurate than model-based default methods. "TEP has also developed streamlined processes to screen, stratify, sample, and calculate carbon levels at a high confidence interval. As a result, TEP can utilize its aggregation models to operate at landscape-scale to cost-effectively assess projects that can generate the large amounts of potential carbon credit assets at low cost."

This methodology is modular and designed to be applicable to changes to agricultural practices, grassland and rangeland restorations, soil carbon protection and accrual benefits from reductions in erosion, grassland protection projects and treatments designed to improve diversity and productivity of grassland and savanna plant communities. The associated modules provide methods for quantifying and monitoring changes in carbon accrual in, and emissions from, soils as well as from other GHG pools and sources that may be affected by AFOLU projects.

There are 18 modules connected to the central methodology:
Module: Stratification for Validation

Module: Projection of Future Conditions

Module: Project Boundaries

Module: Soil Carbon

Module: Living Plant Biomass

Module: Litter

Module: Dead Wood

Module: Woody Biomass Harvesting and Utilization

Module: Long-lived Wood Products

Module: Domestic Animal Populations

Module: Emissions from Domestic Animals

Module: Non-CO2 Soil Emissions

Module: Emissions from Power Equipment

Module: Non-CO2 Emissions from Burning

Module: Displacement Leakage

Module: Market Leakage

Module: Monitoring Plan

Module: Summation of Net Change in Atmospheric GHG Resulting from Project Activities

DCCEE - Department of Climate Change and Energy Effciency.

CFI - Carbon Farming Initiative

DOIC -  Domestic Offsets Integrity Committee

VCS - Verified Carbon Standard
GHG - Greenhouse Gases
AFOLU - Agricultural, Forestry and Other Land Uses