1. 1 On-line resource materials for policy making Ex-Ante Carbon-balance Tool Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAO Learning how using EX-ACT – Module 10/14 How to use The Organic soils Module? © FAO March 2010: All rights reserved. Reproduction and dissemination of material contained on FAO's Web site for educational or other non-commercial purposes are authorized without any prior written permission from the copyright holders provided the source is fully acknowledged. Reproduction of material for resale or other commercial purposes is prohibited without the written permission of the copyright holders. Applications for such permission should be addressed to: copyright@fao.org. copyright@fao.org

2. 2 On-line resource materials for policy making Ex-Ante Carbon-balance Tool Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAO This module is part of a set of power points that describes how works the EX- ACT tool. EX-ACT (Ex-Ante Carbon-balance tool) is a tool developed by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). It is aimed at providing estimations of the mitigation impact of agriculture and forestry development projects, estimating net carbon balance from Green House Gas (GHG) emissions and carbon sequestration. It is a land based accounting system associated with the adoption of alternative land management options (See the linked flyer of the EX-ACT tool). The tool is developed with a modular approach, each module going to be described in such a power point. Acknowledgement

3. On-line resource materials for policy making Ex-Ante Carbon-balance Tool Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAO After reading this module, you should: understand how the grassland module of EX-ACT works; know which data are required to run the grassland module; be able to fill in the grassland module by yourself. Objectives

4. On-line resource materials for policy making Ex-Ante Carbon-balance Tool Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAO Main view of EX-ACT User needs to click here

5. On-line resource materials for policy making Ex-Ante Carbon-balance Tool Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAO Complete view of the Organic soils module

6. On-line resource materials for policy making Ex-Ante Carbon-balance Tool Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAO How filling it... Simplest approach by default (Tier-1) Approach with more detailed information (Tier-2) 2 possible approaches: 1 2 3 1 2 3

7. On-line resource materials for policy making Ex-Ante Carbon-balance Tool Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAO Explanations step by step... 1

8. On-line resource materials for policy making Ex-Ante Carbon-balance Tool Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAO Step by step...1/4 Drainage of organic soils Proposed IPCC default factors depending on climate zone Land uses that will be under drainage Possibility for the user to affect its own ad-hoc factor Area that is drained to be filled by the user Dynamic of drainage adoption By default, the adoption of practices is considered as linear. Yet the user can choose between a linear/immediate/exponential dynamic

9. On-line resource materials for policy making Ex-Ante Carbon-balance Tool Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAO Step by step...1/4 Drainage of organic soils These tables report the corresponding coefficients used for GHG emissions and some calculations made by the model

10. On-line resource materials for policy making Ex-Ante Carbon-balance Tool Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAO Explanations step by step... 2

11. On-line resource materials for policy making Ex-Ante Carbon-balance Tool Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAO Step by step...2/4 CO 2 emissions due to active peat extraction According to IPCC, two kinds of peatland can be under extraction Proposed IPCC default factors depending on climate zone Possibility for the user to affect its own ad-hoc factor Area on which extraction will be carried, to be filled by the user Dynamic of drainage adoption By default, the adoption of practices is considered as linear. Yet the user can change the dynamic

12. On-line resource materials for policy making Ex-Ante Carbon-balance Tool Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAO Step by step...2/4 CO 2 emissions due to active peat extraction These tables report the corresponding coefficients used for GHG emissions and some calculations made by the model

13. On-line resource materials for policy making Ex-Ante Carbon-balance Tool Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAO Explanations step by step... 3

14. On-line resource materials for policy making Ex-Ante Carbon-balance Tool Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAO CO 2 emissions due to peat use Step by step...3/4 According to IPCC, two kinds of peatland can be under use Proposed IPCC default factors depending on climate zone Possibility for the user to affect its own ad-hoc factor Quantity of peat used, to be filled by the user Dynamic of adoption By default, the adoption of practices is considered as linear. Yet the user can choose another dynamic

15. On-line resource materials for policy making Ex-Ante Carbon-balance Tool Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAO Step by step...3/4 CO 2 emissions due to peat use These tables report the corresponding coefficients used for GHG emissions and some calculations made by the model Short help to convert volume in mass, in case the user do not have data in t but in m 3

16. On-line resource materials for policy making Ex-Ante Carbon-balance Tool Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAO Explanations step by step... 4

17. On-line resource materials for policy making Ex-Ante Carbon-balance Tool Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAO Step by step...4/4 N 2 O emissions due to active peat extraction According to IPCC, two kinds of peatland can be under use Proposed IPCC default factors depending on climate zone Possibility for the user to affect its own ad-hoc factor The tool accounts automatically the area provided by the user in the previous box called accounting the CO2 emissions

18. On-line resource materials for policy making Ex-Ante Carbon-balance Tool Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAO Step by step...4/4 N 2 O emissions due to active peat extraction These tables report the corresponding coefficients used for GHG emissions and some calculations made by the model

19. On-line resource materials for policy making Ex-Ante Carbon-balance Tool Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAO How filling it...Now you know everything about the Organic soils module... …See the other modules!

20. On-line resource materials for policy making Ex-Ante Carbon-balance Tool Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAO Glossary On-line resource materials for policy making Ex-Ante Carbon-balance Tool Emission factor: normalized coefficient that allows for calculating the emission fluxes of GHG Carbon sink: system that absorb naturally a part of the CO 2 emitted in the atmosphere and store carbon during a more or less long term Carbon balance: should be considered, for a specific project (or scenario of action) in comparison with a reference, as the net balance of all GHG emissions expressed in CO 2 equivalent (sources and sinks) with the atmosphere interface and the net change in C stocks (biomass, soil…). Nutrient-poor and nutrient-rich peatlands : Nutrient-poor bogs predominate in boreal regions, while in temperate regions, nutrient-rich fens and mires are more common. Types of peatlands can be inferred from the end-use of peat: sphagnum peat, dominant in oligotrophic (nutrient-poor) bogs, is preferred for horticultural uses, while sedge peat, more common in minerotrophic (nutrient rich) fens, is more suitable for energy generation. Boreal countries that do not have information on areas of nutrient-rich and nutrient-poor peatlands should use the emission factor for nutrient-poor peatlands. Temperate countries that do not have such data should use the emission factor for nutrient-rich peatlands. Only one default factor is provided for tropical regions, so disaggregating peatland area by soil fertility is not necessary for tropical countries using the Tier 1 method. Peatland: Typically a wetland such as a mire slowly accumulating peat. Peat is formed from dead plants, typically Sphagnum mosses, which are only partially decomposed due to the permanent submergence in water and the presence of conserving substances such as humic acids.