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Nature and Purpose

Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly (1). This CoP is composed of professionals working in development cooperation who are dealing with issues related to the climate-soil nexus.

Initiators

The CoP is made possible through a supporting partnership. These partners work together and support each other financially and organizationally within the framework of their own ongoing relevant activities. Currently these are:

• “4 per 1000” Initiative on soils for food security and climate,
• GIZ Sector Project Soil Protection, Combating Desertification, Sustainable Land Management (BMZ),
• GIZ Global Programme Soil protection and rehabilitation for food security (BMZ),
• GIZ Support Project for the Implementation of the Paris Agreement (BMU).

This decentralized approach contributes significantly to the sustainability and vitality of the CoP. From the supporters' point of view, the partnership allows to capitalize on the past accomplishments, the existing network and the platform, thus increasing the return on investment. Please contact the Executive Secretariat of the "4 per 1000" Initiative if you would like to contribute.

Background

Healthy soils are vital for our environment and food systems. They are fundamental for food security and biodiversity, mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, and help with adaptation to the adverse impacts of climate change. Nature-based Solutions that increase the amount of soil organic carbon (SOC) can significantly reduce the CO2-concentration in the atmosphere related to human activity, while contributing to fertile soils and suitable habitats for micro and macro fauna. Herewith, they are a crucial element to meet the targets of international agendas, like the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals. Even though the potential of sustainable land management (SLM) and soil carbon is increasingly recognized at the international level, upscaling of soil-carbon practices on a broader scale is not yet achieved.

Objective

Together with the "4 per 1000" initiative, we want to promote awareness of the climate potential of sustainable land management and soil-carbon practices and identify concrete pathways for improvement and implementation. Specifically, we want to advocate increased and concrete consideration of soil organic carbon in the National Determined Contributions (NDCs).

The "Climate-Soil Community of Practice" (CoP) aims to disseminate information on successful land management and soil carbon projects, highlight good practices for overcoming adoption barriers and strengthen the case for sustainable land management as a key to effective climate action. While "4 per 1000" facilitates related activities at the global level, this "community of practice" focuses on the development cooperation context.

Format

This CoP provides a space for actors to exchange knowledge and experience, to present their work, to learn from each other and to develop partnerships. The process for their development is catalyzed by a series of events on selected topics. In cooperation with "4 per 1000", we will provide a platform for follow-up and networking for project development. 

Topics

The discussions and exchange formats elaborate on the climate-soil nexus. Thus far, the community has focused on the following topics:

• Voluntary carbon markets (VCM) for soil organic carbon projects
• Alignment of soil, agriculture, and climate policies
• Biochar production and application models
• Monitoring climate benefits of sustainable land management
• Creating an Enabling Framework for Carbon Market Projects for Soil Protection

To be included

According to me the event is just  one step in a learning process (event cycle or a CoP-cycle) with several simple and basic steps in different format.

The event by itself feeds on the previous steps and in return feeds the subsequent activities that are carried out in a different format.

I would like to illustrate such a CoP cycle that helps people to improve their skill little by little.

The following is just a first series of steps

1. survey to identify topics that matter in the field
2. polling identify priority topics
3. members share relevant data (documents, multimedia stuff, ...) and map ongoing and past projects
4. identify a few specialist who are doing it
5. organize the event, where people can learn, meet, discuss and identify key issues that need to be addressed
6. animate the discussion on the issues in RocketChat,
7. document and share progress.
8. initiate joint projects or activities

((I think it would be good to ellaborate more on this and create a graph to illustrate the cycle ))