Carbon balance estimation for agroforestry land use alternatives in Portugal

• Author(s): Crous-Duran, J. ; Paulo, J.A. ; Palma, J.H.N.
• Date: 2014
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.5/6831
• Origin: Repositório da UTL
• Subject(s): montado; dehesa; alley cropping; LCA; modelling; AGFORWARD; EURAF
• Document Type: Other
• Language: English

Description

Poster In 2005, 11% of the anthropogenic greenhouse gases emissions (GHG) were originated from agricultural activities and this value is expected to increase in the future. Besides the contribution for the restoration of soil productivity and for the improvement of conditions in degraded land, Agroforestry is also proposed as one of the main solutions for the mitigation of the GHG emissions and their effect on Climate Change. With European Union’s legislation supporting and promoting the conversion of land into low-carbon-integrated agriculture, new opportunities arise for the implementation of this type of land use in Europe. In Portugal, this type of agriculture is well represented by a traditional Agroforestry system called montado, combining low density cork oak trees (Quercus suber L) with pastoral activities occupying an area of 715,922 ha, with recent studies showing an extra area suitable for its implementation of around 353,000ha. Considering the new policies established by the EU in regard to the measures to be considered in agriculture for the Climate Change mitigation, and the capacity of the Agroforestry systems to act as a low-carbon and highly productive agriculture, two main objectives are proposed for this work: 1) Compare the potential capacity of the montado to mitigate the GHG emissions by quantifying the net carbon balance of activities in comparison to two other land-use alternatives occurring in the same area: dense cork oak forestry and wheat monoculture; 2) Quantify the benefits/consequences in terms of net carbon balance if new areas are converted into Agroforestry systems, as an alternative to current activities and management models. The methodology for the net carbon balance estimation includes the use of the Yield-SAFE model, calibrated for crop components and cork oak and current most used management practices concerning the three land use types and associated activities.