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Management strategies to protect the carbon cycle - Coggle Diagram
Management strategies to protect the carbon cycle
Afforestation
Involves planting trees in deforested areas due to trees being a carbon sink
It also reduces flood risk, soil erosion and increases biodiversity
The UN's Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) scheme incentives developing countries to conserve their rainforests by putting a monetary value on forest conservation
In China an afforestation project was sponsored in 1978 and aims to afforest 400,00km2 by 2050
This project has also been done to combat desertification and land deflation
Wetland restoration
Wetlands
Include freshwater marshes, salt marshes, peatlands, floodplains and mangroves
Water table at or near the surface causing the ground to be permanently saturated
Wetlands occupy 6-9% of the Earths surface and contains 35% of the terrestrail carbon pool
Pressure on wetland environments from urbanisation
Canada's prairie provinces lost 70% of their wetlands
Restoration projects in the area have shown that wetlands can store an average 3.25 tonnes C/ha/year
Now 112,000 ha have been targeted for restoration the Canadian prairies which should eventually restore 362,000 tonnes C/year
Restoration focuses on rising the local water tables to recreate waterlogged conditions
Coastal areas of reclaimed marshland used for farming can be restored by breaching sea level defences
Improving agricultural practices
Polyculture
Some nutrients aren't being solely taken
Mixing species un an area to create biodiversity
Trees can shelter crops below in canopy
Rotational farm
Allow a field a year to regrow before crops grow again
Stopping ploughing the soil
No machinery on wet ground to stop exposing soil or compaction
Intense livesrock farming produces 100 million tonnes/ year of CH4
Reducing emissions
Carbon trading
Businesses are allocated an annual quota for their CO2 emissions
If they emit less than their quota they receive carbon credits which can be traded on international markets
Businesses that exceed their quota must purchase additional credits or get fined
Carbon offsets are credits awarded to companies for schemes such as afforestation. They can be bought and compensated fro excessive emissions elsewhere
International Agreements (Paris 2015)
An legally binding framework for coordinating international efforts to tackle climate change
Aim
global warming is no more than 2C up on preindustrial averages
to achieve net zero emissions in the second half of the century
greenhouse gas emissions should peak as soon as possible
The agreement was signed by 195 countries in April 2016
The shipping industry has been a problem as CO2 emissions are predicted to rise 25% more by 2020
Pledged reduction in INDC emissions
China = -60%
Canada = 30%
Japan = -26%