Soil Carbon Sequestration in Rangelands and carbon trading opportunities for Australian Agriculture

The purpose of this report is to investigate rangelands soil carbon and sequestration opportunities that farmers and graziers can exploit. This, amid an emerging, seemingly consumer driven new frontier of sustainability, lifestyle, social and moral fulfilments and economic rewards. 

The rise in the awareness of soil carbon and its ability to suck carbon from the atmosphere and back into the soil is gaining momentum.  There is also a legitimate and experienced few, whose thinking suggests that carbon is but one component of the agri-ecosystem and should be considered in conjunction with all soil dynamics.

To help clarify some of these issues, this report is a technical document and presents both a review of the mechanisms of carbon capture and storage in agricultural soils and an analysis of the international evolution of soil carbon and carbon commercialisation which are resulting in shifts in agricultural management. 

These aspects were concurrently verified with on ground interviews and visits to farms, research facilities and universities, financiers, government officials, proprietary research, proprietary commercial technology, and stakeholders in the soil carbon and carbon trading sectors as part of a Nuffield Scholarship, supported by Macquarie Agricultural Funds Management.

Soil carbon is the priority theme in this report. It is used in context within the matrix that is the terrestrial mass that has sustained life for millennia and will continue to, into the future