Context E1 - MRV SystemsProblem E1 - MRV Systems| Problem Statement | Description | Consequences |
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| An unbiased, comprehensive review of existing, trusted, and affordable tools for tracking changes in SOC and SH at different scales, for different environments and purposes, that meet agreed-upon standards does not exist. | Regenerative agriculture through the adoption of agroecological practices will only be accepted when we manage to monitor, report and verify increases in SOC (carbon harvesting). So far, MRV tools are not sufficiently developed, and it is difficult for decision-makers to get an overview of what's possible and appropriate in a given context. | 1. Limited reliable and robust evaluation of the baseline scenario in some agricultural systems. 2. Limitations in assessing the changes in soil organic content under different managements or environmental situations. Available monitoring tools can be inappropriate in some systems because of a lack of adjustments in temporal or spatial scales between the soil system and the monitoring method. As there is little guidance, users' sub-optimal choices of the appropriate MRV system are likely. 3. Insufficient data to monitor/evaluate changes of soil organic carbon in soils at different scales. Therefore farmers cannot benefit from UNFCC and CDM carbon funding schemes. This can result in a reluctance to change their practices due to the fear of losing yields and not finding their short-term way financially. |
Causes E1 - MRV Systems| N° | Cause | Description |
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1 | Complexity | The high complexity of some monitoring systems requires specific expertise that is not always available in all the working groups. | | 2 | Diversity of offer | Diversity of concepts, solutions, and actors. Approaches to onsite measurements and remote sensing-based approaches need to be defined, agreed upon, and translated into global standards. | | 3 | Lack of meta-data | Comprehensive meta-data on MRV tools is frequently not available. This results in a lack of information regarding concepts and methodology, monetary, infrastructural, and human requirements, data management and interoperability, and applicability range and scalability. | 4 | Lack of evaluation | Lack of comprehensive, need-oriented evaluation of existing tools.
| 5 | No ontology | No ontology exists as a unified basis to describe the data. | 6 | No agreement on minimal datasets | There is no agreement on indicators for monitoring SH and SOC. | 7 | Lack of tools | Affordable and appropriate tools are scarce. |
Implementation strategy E1 - MRV SystemsActivities E1 - MRV Systems| N° | Activity | Description |
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| 1 | Provide a catalog of MRV systems
| Identify and classify systems to monitor the dynamics of carbon in soils and the state of SH and ensure its agile development and continuous updating.
| 2 | Assess needs and gaps
| Assess the needs related to MRV systems and identify gaps.
| 3 | Define standards | Elaborate and agree on indicators, protocols, and standards for SOC and SH monitoring. Build an ontology hosted on open-access servers, and ensure a steering committee oversees the development of the ontology. | 4
| Fill gaps | Advocate for and build partnerships for collaborative Research & Development of new monitoring tools for SH and SOC.
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Critical Success Factors (CSFs) E1 - MRV Systems| N° | Critical Success Factor | Description |
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1 | Evaluation and rating | Define the criteria for rating the various tools and methods. | 2 | Ontology | Use ontology to describe the knowledge space. Every downstream tool can use this when storing its data. This enables the reuse, comparability, exchangeability, and searchability of all the data generated.
| 3 | Minimal data set | Create an agreed list of SOC and SH indicators and protocols. Methods must be transparent, clearly described, and comply with recent academic advances and international standards. | 4 | Specifications | Provide comprehensive metadata on the different tools. | 5 | Diversity | Conduct systematic research and select tools for all needs. Some monitoring techniques might address non-scientific users such as technicians, farmers, or citizens (citizen science), so it is important to provide them with user-friendly methods and clear instructions without compromising the accuracy of the assessment. | 6 | Urgency | MRV catalog is key to success, and its implementation should be given priority.
| 7 | Fill gaps | Invest in the development of tools to fill gaps. Research is needed to build tools that allow for cheap, easy-to-use, and reliable soil carbon measurement tools. |
Barriers E1 - MRV Systems| N° | Barrier | Description |
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1 | Lack of tools | One of the difficulties will be finding tools, sensors, and methods that can be used on a large scale and under various pedoclimatic conditions. | 2 | Complexity | The high complexity of tools and methods may discourage non-specialist users. | 3 | Lack of means | It isn't easy to mobilize sufficient means to conduct a comparison and evaluation. |
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