Soil management options to sequester carbon and mitigate the greenhouse effect

The imbalance between global sources and sinks in the global budget of atmospheric CO2 is one of the most important problems in the study of global change. At present there is a 'missing sink' of about 1-2 Pg C yr -1. It is likely that a major part of this sink for carbon is to be found in the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems. The Kyoto Protocol currently restricts the allowable terrestrial sequestration of carbon to strictly defined cases of "afforestation, reforestation and deforestation". Appropriate conservation and management of the terrestrial natural resources and especially of soils, however, can substantially reduce the buildup of atmospheric greenhouse gases over the next 25 to 50 years while new, "clean" technologies for energy production are being developed and overall anthropogenic emissions are being curtailed