Implementing grassland management practices that increase carbon uptake by increasing productivity or reducing carbon losses (e.g. through high rates of offtake) can lead to net accumulation of carbon in grassland soils – sequestering atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). Globally, the potential to sequester carbon by improving grassland practices or rehabilitating degraded grasslands is substantial – of the same order as that of agricultural and forestry sequestration. Because practices that sequester carbon in grasslands often enhance productivity, policies designed to encourage carbon sequestering grassland management practices could lead to near-term dividends in greater forage production and enhanced producer income.

Practices that sequester carbon in grasslands also tend to enhance resilience in the face of climate variability, and are thus likely to enhance longer-term adaptation to changing climates. Developing policies to encourage the adoption of practices that sequester carbon has several significant challenges, such as demonstrating additionality, addressing the potential for losses of sequestered carbon, and engaging smallholders and pastoralists with uncertain land tenure. In addition, the paucity of data in developing countries hampers the measurement, monitoring and verifying of carbon sequestration in response to those practices. This report reviews the current status of opportunities and challenges for grassland carbon sequestration. Based on these observations, the report then identifies components that could foster the inclusion of grasslands in a post-2012 climate agreement, and the development of policies to improve grassland management.