Loading

The 4 per 1000 Initiative Soils for food security and climate

Despite the drastic efforts already made, more is needed to stop global warming

an essential and substantive solution exists:

CARBON* SEQUESTRATION in SOILS**

* Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) / ** Agricultural and forest lands.

WHAT is 4 PER 1000 ?

4 PER 1000 = 0.4%

"Increasing the sequestration of carbon* in soils** by 4 per 1000 or 0.4%, per year, could help capture the human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere."

4 per 1000 is the aspirational level for carbon sequestration in soils via agriculture and forestry

THE VISION OF THE INITIATIVE

Regenerated and carbon-rich soils

to fight climate change and hunger, worldwide.

THE MISSION

Soils for Food Security and Climate

THE 3 GOALS

1. Accelerate Climate Change MITIGATION

2. Intensify the ADAPTATION of Agriculture to Climate Change

3. Improve FOOD SECURITY

THE TRIPLE AMBITION

Contribute to neutralise current carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

Manage lands and forests to protect carbon-rich soils and restore those degraded.

Increase carbon content in soils to raise yields of food production.

THE MEANS

On a global scale, make agricultural practices evolve towards:

Agro-Ecology including Agro-Forestry / Conservation Agriculture / Regenerative Agriculture & Sustainable Landscape Management.

THE BENEFICIARIES

Farmers [local family farms and farmers organizations] and foresters are essential to implement the solution

More than 3 billion people live in rural areas. They are fully confronted to climate change and food insecurity. Soil carbon is crucial to soil fertility and food production.
Small scale farmers produce 70% of the world's food and, as such, have a key role to play in protecting the soil.

Due to gender inequality in access to land, it is crucial to continue to involve women.

Women own less than 1% of the land but make 43% of all farmers in developing countries.

THE ACHIEVEMENTS, so far

I. The 4 pillars of Research

  • Pillar 1. Estimating the Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) potential
  • Pillar 2. Developing management practices
  • Pillar 3. Defining the enabling environment
  • Pillar 4. Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV)

Learn more about the Research

II. Reference Criterion & Indicators for Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) project assessment

Criterion and Indicators are linked to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs)

III. An innovative cross-functional Program of Action

  1. Providing a collaborative platform that facilitates exchanges and the capitalisation of experiences.
  2. Creating a digital resource centre on soil carbon management.

WHY we need you

Your engagement is needed NOW !

to help fight against climate change while enhancing food security.

to support the most advanced research and reflection about carbon sequestration in soils.

to change agricultural practices worldwide.

No action would mean giving up on the Paris Agreement central aim***

*** "The Paris Agreement central aim is to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping a global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius." [UNFCCC]

CONTRIBUTE NOW !

  • by funding projects to restore or preserve carbon stocks in soils.
  • to implement, locally, agricultural and environment management practices.
  • to develop and implement appropriate public policies & tools.
  • to continued research efforts in carbon storage in soils.
  • to train and disseminate knowledge programs.
  • to develop agricultural supply chains respecting soils.
  • by supporting the Executive Secretariat.
ENGAGE NOW!

HOW TO ENGAGE in 2 STEPS

1. Join the Initiative as a partner or a member by signing the “Declarations of Intention”

Contact person: Dr Paul Luu, Executive Secretary of the Initiative, secretariat@4p1000.org

2. Make a financial contribution

Contact person: Béatrice Breton-Askar, Resource Mobilization Manager, resource.mobilization@4p1000.org

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT
LEARN MORE about ...

The Initiative & Climate MITIGATION

The science behind: "An increase in Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) stocks of circa 860 gigatonnes across the world's top soil [0-40 cm] by 0.4% or 4 per 1000, would store 3.4 gigatonnes carbon per year, and thereby compensate for up to 80 % of the current increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration."Calculations dated 2015.

"Atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) can be lowered either by reducing emissions or by taking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and storing in soils / terrestrial ecosystems." [FAO]
Human activities release enormous quantities of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere. This intensifies the greenhouse effect and accelerates global warming or climate change.

The Initiative & ADAPTATION to Climate Change

"There is a major potential for increasing soils carbon through restoration of degraded soils and widespread adoption of soil conservation practices." [FAO]
24% of the world's soils (30% according to FAO) are degraded to varying degrees, including almost half of the agricultural soils. [BAI and al., 2013].

The Initiative & FOOD SECURITY

"Through sustainable soil management, we could produce up to 58% more food. Soil preservation is essential for Zero Hunger world. 95% of food is produced on our soils". [FAO]
"In 2015, 795 million people in the world were under-nourished." [FAO, IFAD, WFP. 2015] ; and "By 2080, up to 600 million more may also be under-nourished due to climate change." [UNDP. 2007].
"One of the greatest challenge of Humanity: how to feed 9 billion people in 2050?" [CGIAR]

Learn more about carbon storage in soils

Learn more about the Governance

Stay informed

The 4 per 1000 Initiative is hosted by CGIAR System Organization in Montpellier, France.

Photo credits to Ms Georgina Smith - CIAT (CIAT is one of CGIAR 15 research centers).

Created By
Béatrice BRETON-ASKAR
Appreciate

Credits:

Created with images by Toni Lluch - "Autumn park path" • Niko Soikkeli - "Free Tree" • bjmyers - "growth tree maple spring environment leaf green" • mailanmaik - "cusco bolivia chiqun" • sandro mattei - "campagna toscana" • Asantha Abeysooriya - "Picking Tea Leaves" • sugar0607 - "Village women carrying large baskets of produce in Myanmar" • NLPhotos - "Femmes africaines" • WikiImages - "earth map winter january continents climate zones" • SD-Pictures - "industry sunrise sky air pollution environmental protection" • josealbafotos - "drought dehydrated clay floor earth cracked cracks" • Nathaniel Tetteh - "Heal the world" • janeb13 - "children of war hungry sadness waiting line"

Report Abuse

If you feel that this video content violates the Adobe Terms of Use, you may report this content by filling out this quick form.

To report a Copyright Violation, please follow Section 17 in the Terms of Use.