Identifying agricultural practices with environmental benefits

In the wake of the United Nations' series of global meetings on global climate change, the Food and Agricultural Organization (fao) of the UN offered Trent's Dr. Raul Ponce an opportunity to put his university research lab to work on a project that could have far-reaching benefits for farmers in Latin America and the Caribbean - and, ultimately, for the state of the environment everywhere.

With a US $27,000 grant, Ponce and his assistants began working on this particular challenge in 1999: to research methods for measuring and monitoring above-ground biomass and carbon stock and soil carbon sequestration, and, based on the results, to come up with suggestions for land use changes that would enhance carbon sequestration by vegetation and soils.

Ponce and his team of graduate and undergraduate students from the Environmental Program at Trent are now studying four sites: two in Mexico, one in Cuba and one in Costa Rica. The measuring and collecting of soil samples was done over the summer of 2000, and they are now processing the data. Ponce expects the study to be completed in April 2001, and, once the conclusions and recommendations have been formulated, he and the students will present their findings in a report to the UN.

As Ponce acknowledges, taking part in a project of this magnitude "creates an extraordinary opportunity for students." As well, the methodology they will come up with will be passed on to the Latin American nations via the fao and will have long-term benefits for the entire region. Trent's contributions will be recognized in the final UN document.

Ponce has already provided technical back-up to the UN on a number of occasions, and recently represented Trent at conferences in Lyon, France and Geneva, Switzerland.

By developing a reliable method for measuring the exact amount of carbon that can be accrued in soil, scientists will be able to identify the agriculture practices that will provide the most environmental benefits in specific areas. Based on this knowledge, they can then make recommendations to farmers for land use changes.

The 1997 Kyoto Protocol of the UN, which calls for a commitment from all member countries to reduce industrial carbon emissions to certain targets, furthers the potential impacts this research could have on mitigation of and offsets of co2 emissions and on Green-House Gases (ghg) long suspected responsible for climate change. The impact of research of this kind could be most felt on developing nations through the Kyoto Protocol's "Clean Development Mechanism" (cdm) by which industries failing to reduce to their target goals must transfer a designated amount of their funds to these countries, and the developing nations, in turn, must commit to making land use changes which would "sequester" the equivalent amount of carbon from the atmosphere in the form of co2.

Representatives from Costa Rica and Cuba have already approached Professor Ponce, through the UN, about implementing the methods, and want to train their own people in the process. To start, 10 undergraduate students from the University of Chapingo, Mexico were sent to Trent's gis lab in January 2001 for training in the modeling of carbon. In turn they will work on implementing the methods in an entire state of that country.

Ponce has high hopes for this endeavour - for what it will mean for the people of Mexico, Cuba and Costa Rica, for the experience it will give to students from there and from Trent, and for its eventual impact on the global environment. He's also hoping to link it with other Trent departments and programs, such as the instruct project now underway in Ecuador and Mexico.

In the meantime, he and his assistants will be hard at work in the lab tabulating their findings and working on the ensuing report to the United Nations.