Grasslands: Soil Carbon Methodology

Brinkman Earth Systems, (a partner division with Brinkman Climate) together with The Earth Partners, developed the first-ever comprehensive methodology for Agricultural Land Management (ALM) projects to the Verified Carbon Standard in 2012. The Soil Carbon Quantification Methodology, v1.0 is designed to be applicable to ALM projects including 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 savannah 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 (land-based) projects.

This project has the interesting distinction of being the longest GHG methodology, but that is because of the complexity of soil GHG dynamics, the varieties of human grassland and agriculture practices, and the fact that the methodology is organized into its intuitive modules, making it one of the easiest methodologies to use—an important feature for land managers involvement and comprehension.