Advancing Carbon Farming in North Africa

The 4 per 1000 initiative held last October its Mediterranean Regional Conference in Morocco, where Farms4Climate partners Tristano Bacchetti De Gregoris and Ajit Govind joined to discuss soil organic carbon sequestration and soil health in the region. In turn, Wiekert Visser presented F4C project results in an online workshop on Enhanced Rock Weathering. 

The 4 per 1000 Mediterranean Regional Conference 2024 was held last October in Rabat, Morocco, bringing together around 75 participants to discuss the potential, challenges, opportunities, and strategies for soil organic carbon sequestration, soil health and agroecology within Mediterranean ecosystems. The event featured presentations and debates involving stakeholders from various sectors, including research, policy, farmer representatives, and private funding. Among the invited speakers were Stéphane Le Foll and Paul Luu from the 4per1000 initiative, French and Moroccan Ministries of Agriculture, and Farms4Climate (F4C) partners Tristano Bacchetti De Gregoris (SAE) and Ajit Govind (ICARDA).

Bacchetti De Gregoris delivered a presentation titled "Opportunities for the development of holistic carbon farming in the Middle East and North Africa region", emphasizing the importance of boosting a vision of carbon farming as a mechanism to generate environmental and social benefits, that extend beyond carbon itself. He underscored that the green transition towards more sustainable land management models requires a collaborative, multi-actor effort, with carbon farming identified as a key tool to drive change and foster the co-design of regionally tailored strategies. Additionally, SAE's founder introduced the results and potential solutions from the F4C project for the Mediterranean and North Africa region. This included showcasing the value of living labs and a bottom-up approach as practical tools to tackle local challenges and support rural communities effectively.

Project results were also discussed in November by F4C partner Wiekert Wisser from Heliopolis University (HU) during an online workshop on Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW) in the Global South, organized by the CASH Coalition. Visser shared insights from the SEKEM/HU El Wahat Living Lab in Egypt, highlighting findings from the ERW test conducted in the Bahariyah region. His presentation focused on technical and scientific issues, emphasizing the need for pushing for a common understanding of Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) of this carbon farming method. The workshop also underscored the significant increase in global activity around ERW, particularly over the past two years, while acknowledging the ongoing need to refine best practices for project development in this emerging field.

In summary, these events provided valuable opportunities to continue fostering connections, strengthening our shared vision, and establishing meaningful synergies. Furthermore, they also highlighted F4C's role in promoting best practices in carbon farming while contributing to advancements in policy and research development.