Managing land for carbon in southern Africa: relationships between carbon, livelihoods and ecosystem services

森林砍伐和土地退化是人为温室气体排放的重要原因。因此，土地的使用和管理方式对决定有多少碳被储存或释放到大气中至关重要。鼓励特定土地使用和土地管理做法的支付制度，有助于在土壤和植被中储存有机碳，正变得越来越受欢迎。然而，人们对这种做法给环境带来的风险和收益知之甚少，特别是在其支持粮食生产的能力方面，也不知道它可能如何影响穷人的生计。这种知识的缺乏在旱地和亚湿润地区尤为明显，因为更多的注意力集中在热带森林上，尽管贫困问题往往没有本项目重点关注的撒哈拉以南非洲那么严重。评估管理土地碳的风险和收益是一项紧迫的挑战，需要一个跨越传统学科和部门边界的大型团队的合作。因此，这项建议是由来自南部非洲4个国家的自然和社会科学家组成的多学科小组提出的，并得到国际、政策、私营部门和非政府组织伙伴的支持。该项目的目的是于2010年9月在纳米比亚举办一次规划和能力建设讲习班，该讲习班将完善和发展关于“为碳管理土地”这一专题的研究思路。我们将重点关注纳米比亚、博茨瓦纳、赞比亚和马拉维的学习领域。这些国家包括一系列不同的土地使用制度，并包括撒哈拉以南非洲的部分地区，那里的贫困仍然是一个重要的挑战。讲习班活动将：a)审查目前对碳储存和损失的了解，以及土壤和植被衡量碳储存和损失的方式；b)确定研究地区穷人从事的谋生活动，以及可受益于与管理土地碳有关的付款的群体；c)确定与营养循环、水和粮食生产有关的土地的当前环境状况，以期评估管理碳土地如何改变这些更广泛的服务；以及d)评估现有研究方面的最佳做法，以制定基于社区的碳储存项目付款。我们项目的创新之处在于，它以一种真正综合的国际方法将不同的学科和群体聚集在一起，以现有的研究基础为基础，我们通过评估土壤和植被中的有机碳并将其与社会和经济分析相结合来扩展该项目，以便能够对不同的土地利用选择进行更全面的评估。研讨会期间的活动将包括“利益相关者分析”，以确定哪些人和组织需要参与更大的提案。这将确保它在改善整个南部非洲穷人的生活方面产生重大而持久的影响，同时也增加环境中储存的碳。在开展这些活动时，该项目通过以下方式实现ESPA方案的目标：1)促进关于生态系统服务、其动态和管理以及它们可帮助减少贫困的方式的研究和证据基础；2)开发创新的多学科研究方法；3)让主要研究用户(政策制定者、私营部门、非政府组织和穷人)参与整个过程，从而提高对研究成果的吸收和利用；以及4)建立有助于提高南方研究人员能力的多学科南南和南北伙伴关系。

Deforestation and land degradation contribute significantly to human-induced greenhouse gas emissions. How land is used and managed is therefore vital in determining how much carbon is stored or released into the atmosphere. Payment systems encouraging particular land uses and land management practices that help to store organic carbon in soils and vegetation are becoming increasingly popular. However, little is known about the risks and gains this produces for the environment, particularly in terms of its ability to support food production, nor how it could affect the livelihoods of the poor. This lack of knowledge is especially apparent in dryland and sub-humid systems, as much more attention has focused on tropical forests, even though poverty problems are often less acute than in sub-Saharan Africa where this project focuses. Assessing the risks and gains of managing land for carbon is an urgent challenge that requires the cooperation of a large team, working across traditional disciplinary and sectoral boundaries. As such, this proposal has been developed by a multidisciplinary group of natural and social scientists with expertise from across 4 southern African countries, supported with inputs from international, policy, private sector and Non-Governmental Organisation partners. The aim of the project is to hold a planning and capacity building workshop in Namibia in September 2010, which will refine and develop research ideas on the topic of 'managing land for carbon'. We will focus on study areas in Namibia, Botswana, Zambia and Malawi. These countries include a range of different land use systems, and encompass parts of sub-Saharan Africa in which poverty remains an important challenge. Workshop activities will: a) review current understanding of carbon stores and losses and the ways in which they are measured for both soil and vegetation; b) identify the livelihood activities that the poor pursue in the study areas and the groups of people that could benefit from payments associated with managing the land for carbon; c) identify the current environmental status of land in relation to nutrient cycling, water, and food production, with a view to assessing how managing the land for carbon could alter these wider services; and d) evaluate existing best practices in research for the development of community-based payments for carbon storage projects. The novelty of our project lies in its drawing together of different disciplines and groups in a truly integrated and international approach to build on the current research base yet, we extend it by assessing organic carbon in both soil and vegetation and link this with social and economic analyses to enable more complete assessment of different land use options. Activities during the workshop will include a 'stakeholder analysis' to identify which groups of people and organisations need to be involved in the larger proposal. This will ensure it has a significant lasting impact in improving the lives of the poor across southern Africa while also increasing the carbon stored in the environment. In pursuing these activities, the project addresses the ESPA programme objectives by: 1) contributing towards an improved research and evidence base on ecosystem services, their dynamics and management and the ways they can help to reduce poverty; 2) developing innovative, multidisciplinary research methodologies; 3) engaging key research users (policymakers, the private sector, NGOs and the poor) in the entire process, thus enhancing the uptake and utility of research outputs; and 4) building multidisciplinary south-south and south-north partnerships that help enhance the capacity of southern researchers.