Biochar accounts for an important source of carbon sequestration and is being high in the climate change discussion as a carbon-negative product. It results from a heat treatment of organic material in an oxygen-limited environment (pyrolyis) in the soils. The outcome can be a very stable form of carbon that can remain in the soils for hundreds to thousand years without changing and setting free green house gas relevant CO2. Biochar is also considered to contribute to soil health especially in the nutrient – poor, less productive and degraded soils that are typical for drylands. However the benefit of biochar is known not to be universal and much research is still to be done.
Local people in Pakistan use prosopis juliflora bush mostly as cheap fuel. This invasive species provides greenery and covers extensive areas of low grade and less fertile soils in peri urban and rural areas. Its dried branches meet the energy demand for the poor people, but at the same time biochar making in rural areas of Sindh, Pakistan at large scale by this "useless" bush may contribute to carbon capture and sequestration if the carbon remains in the soils, as this carbon improves drylands poor soil. A similar situation is found in parts of India.
It has been much debated what are the advantages and disadvantages of this bush that was actually imported by the Pakistan government from South America in the fifties to control the effect of sand storms and moving dunes that invaded cities in the Sindh province.
A study should assess the area and scope of the problem as well as number of people involved, the ecological services of prosopis juliflora, ecological harms, the carbon capture potential and beneficial effects of biochar, its stability, the economic viability and the social effects e.g. in respect to energy production for the poor, and recommendations for stakeholders.
A maximum sum of € 5.000 is available to carry out the research.
For more information please contact Tanveer Arif, Scope, Pakistan
scope@scope.org.pk or the science officer drynet Silke Brehm silke.brehm@skynet.be
