A presentation from the WCCA 2011 conference in Brisbane.

1. 5th World Congress of Conservation Agriculture, 25-29 September, Brisbane
Harnessing Ecosystem Services With
Conservation Agriculture in Canada and Brazil
Amir Kassam, Ivo Mello, Tom Goddard, Theodor
Friedrich, Francois Laurent, Tim Reeves, Berthold Hansmann
University of Reading, UK
Brazilian No-Till Federation, Ponta Grossa
Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development, Alberta
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Rome
University of Maine, France
Timothy G. Reeves & Associates, Australia
GIZ, Germany

2. Content
• Ecosystem services
• CA-based ecosystem services
• Canada: Carbon offset scheme
• Brazil: Watershed services
• Some conclusions

3. Ecosystem Services
• Societies benefit from the many resources and
processes supplied by nature. Collectively they are
known as ecosystem services, or goods and services.
Some of the goods and services are also referred to as
environmental services.
• Many services are of a public goods nature – clean
water, nitrogen fixation, carbon sequestration, erosion
control, pollination services, etc.
• They operate at various nested levels from micro and
macro to mega scale – field, farm, catchment, and
landscape level in watersheds and basins.

4. Benefits of CA
Ecosystem services:
• provisioning: food and clean water
• regulating: climate and pests/diseases
• supporting: nutrient cycles, pollination
• cultural: recreation
• conserving: biodiversity, erosion control

5. CA-Based Ecosystem Services
• In agricultural landscapes managed under the
tillage-based production paradigm, soil-
mediated ecosystem functions and services, are
disrupted often severely. Soil health and
productive capacity and crop & ecosystem
performance remain sub-optimal.
• With CA, it is possible to harness enhanced
productivity and production as well as ecosystem
services often with less inputs.

6. CA-Based Ecosystem Services
• CA-based ES are now operating in several
countries, as part of larger national programmes.
For example:
– The agricultural carbon offset scheme in
Alberta, Canada (as part Alberta’s GHG offset system)
– The hydrological services programme in Parana’ III
basin in Brazil (as part of integrated Itaipu basin
management programme)
– Control of soil erosion, water and wind, in Spain
– Control of dust storms and water erosion in the loess
plateau of the Yellow River basin in China
– Reducing susceptibility to land degradation in western
Australia

7. Case one
Canada: Carbon offset scheme in Alberta
Sequestering soil Carbon with CA and trading
offsets with regulated companies to offset
their emissions by purchasing verified tonnes
(from ag and non-ag sectors)

8. Canada: Carbon offset scheme in Alberta

9. Alberta Greenhouse Gas Offset System
(2007+)
1. Applies to all facilities in Alberta that produce over
100,000 tonnes of CO2e per year
1. reporting required since 2003
2. 90 facilities reporting as of 2006
2. As of 2007 facilities must reduce emissions -12%
from their baseline (2003-5)
3. Facilities settle annual statements by:
1. Pay into Technology Fund @ $15 per tonne
2. Trade Performance Credits
3. Purchase registered offsets
1. Government approved protocol
2. Alberta sourced
3. Not required by any other law or regulation

10. Alberta agriculture protocols (32)
• Tillage Quantification
• Nitrous Oxide Emissions Reduction Renewable energy:
• Beef feeding – edible oils - solar; wind; run of the river
• Beef feeding – reduced days on feed Geologic Sequestration:
• Beef feeding – lifecycle quantification - acid gas injection; enhanced oil
recovery
• Dairy cattle emission reduction
• Pork quantification - Modal freight shifting
• Biogas quantification - N2O abatement from nitric acid
production
- Sulphur extender in ashphalt
• Beef feeding – residual feed intake
• Conservation fallow
• Afforestation
• ….

12. Learnings in a GHG market
1) Reductionist Science Integrated Science
• Lagoons
• National Inventory modeling
• Plots Regions/years
2) Operational policy is needed
• Glues the science together into protocols
• Defining No-till, Dry Prairie boundary, historical tonnes, Registry
3) Implementation needs more than a Protocol
• Private sector involvement, learning, development
• Farm financers, supply dealers, etc need to understand – part of the
new way of doing business.
• Clearing house, oversight, Registry

13. Learnings….
4) Verification
– Prove what happened, what you are doing.
– No more labs and plots
– Scale and levels in time and space
– Converging professions are learning
5) GHG Derivatives
– Working together across disciplines, gov’t
– Integrative science + policy
– Coefficients, Footprints, ISO, LCA
– EGS, Government/public readiness

14. Conclusions
• Government policy is always criticized
• Policy controls: who, quantity, price
• Farmers are not under a financial burden
• It is a voluntary offset market
• It is beyond Business As Usual
• Protocols:
– We didn’t have it perfect the first time
– People don’t read well
– Interpretations can differ
• Industry is generally appreciative
Tom.Goddard @ gov.ab.ca
www.carbonoffsetsolutions.ca

15. Case Two
Brazil: Watershed services in the Parana’ basin
The Itaipu lake eastern watersheds (Paraná 3)
Growing Good Water – Cultivando Agua Boa

16. Brazil: Watershed services in the Parana’ basin
the Itaipu lake eastern watersheds (Paraná 3)
BRAZIL
watershed limits
Paraná 3 watershed
Itaipu dam and Paraná 3 watershed

17. Brazil: Watershed services in the Parana’ basin
• Water resources are threatened by conventional tillage
agricultural practices:
 sediments in rivers  turbidity
 phosphorus  eutrophication  turbidity + toxicity of some
algae  reduce biodiversity
 pesticides pollution  toxicity for humans and ecosystems
• Conservation Agriculture is an alternative to reduce impacts
on river’s quality and to maintain a high level of productivity
 improves infiltration
 improves cation exchange capacity
 reduces erosion

18. Brazil: Watershed services in the Parana’ basin
Itaipu watershed
Deep red ferralsols, with good fertility potential
+ humid subtropical climate characterized by hot,
humid summers and mild winters
↓
High agric. productivity: 3 harvests a year: soya / corn / wheat or oats
but violent rain storms  high erosion
↓
Itaipu lake receives important flows of sediments and nutrients
from agricultural lands
↓
Eutrophication / sedimentation in the lake
could reduce the dam productivity in the medium and long term
↓
“Cultivando Água Boa” is a Itaipu Binacional Management Program in
order to take care of its reservoir water applied to Paraná 3 watershed

19. Brazil: Watershed services in the Parana’ basin
Linear erosion in a grassland

20. Brazil: Watershed services in the Parana’ basin
Erosion damages in a soya field

21. Brazil: Watershed services in the Parana’ basin
Turbidity generated by soil erosion in an Itaipu lake affluent

22. Brazil: Watershed services in the Parana’ basin
Lake eutrophication

23. Iguassu Falls, Brazil in the 1970’s

24. Brazil: Watershed services in the Parana’ basin
Itaipu dam today (source: Itaipu Binacional)

25. Brazil: Watershed services in the Parana’ basin
No-till in Parana 3 watershed

26. Brazil: Watershed services in the Parana’ basin
• No-till is largely applied on the Paraná 3 watershed
but is more widely practised on the eastern part
with large farm size on the soft-rolling eastern plateau
than near the lake with middle and little farms on the hilly area
• Farmers motivations for no-till:
 reducing erosion and superficial runoff
 reducing turnaround time between crops
 reducing fuel consumption
 increasing soil water capacity for a better resistance to drought

27. Brazil: Watershed services in the Parana’ basin
No-till and anti-erosive terraces has been realized
since the 1990s to reduce soil erosion
However, they are useful but insufficient…
Indeed, soya leaves residues which mineralize quickly
because the C/N index is low and the climate is
hot and wet during large part of the year
The challenge is to make farming systems evolve to
Conservation Agriculture with higher organic matter production
through more persistent crop residues and
wider use of cover crops
 reduces erosion and herbicide usage
 improves farm productivity + water quality of Itaipu lake

28. Brazil: Watershed services in the Parana’ basin
Brazilian Federation of No Till Farmers Associations – FEBRAPDP
supported by Itapúa Binacional
has developed a participatory assessment of no-till system quality
=
Tool for land management based on a no-till quality index (Roloff et al.)
1. allows the farmer or his consultant to enter his data
automatically provides graphically the scoring of his parcels
(overlaid on Google Earth images)
and ranking it within his sub-watershed or larger regions
2. provides information needed to generate a continuous
improvement plan to optimize the current score,
Considering the records obtained in the various indicators
- available online using free open source software
ivomello@via-rs.net
http://confins.revues.or/7143

29. Ecoagriculture landscapes: harmonizing multiple
objectives at farm, community, landscape scales
Path to waterfall on private property brings income to locals in the
Monteverde Cloudforest Reserve form of ecotourism
provides important source of water in
landscape and downstream
● Fotos
Shaded coffee extends wildlife habitat from reserve and
reduces erosion
grandes. Solo
arrastra una
nueva imagen
Coffee, corn, sugar cane and other products are sold at
a local cooperative y pásala para
Windbreaks provide habitat and
corridors for wildlife, control erosion átras
and protect livestock from wind
All fences are live rows of trees

30. The “promised land” today:
view from mount Nebo towards Jordan Valley
(suggested reading: Dirt – the erosion of civilizations by David Montgomery)

31. Thank you
More information:
Canada -- Tom.Goddard @ gov.ab.ca
www.carbonoffsetsolutions.ca
Brazil -- ivomello@via-rs.net
http://confins.revues.or/7143