Step into the fascinating world of rewilding with ‘The Book of Wilding‘, written by the Knepp Estate’s founders, Isabella Tree, and Charlie Burrell. We’re grateful to the authors of this groundbreaking book as it mentions Agricarbon. Providing not only a practical guide to rewilding but also serving as a potential reference for future historians and students studying the environmental, social, and economic context of our era. It chronicles the regenerative transition we are witnessing in the early twenty-first century.
In short, it is a fascinating read; an entire encyclopedia of absolutely everything to do with rewilding. On page 338, Agricarbon gets a mention. During the latter part of 2022, we quantified Knepp Estate’s soil carbon stocks. The book includes a photo of our field operator Nathan Burns tackling the scrubby terrain.
A collective evolution is playing out; we are renewing our relationship with the land and its inhabitants, upgrading our value systems, utilising systems thinking, and – of course – unlocking the power of soil as a carbon sink in the fight against climate change.
According to a comprehensive review published in the Environmental Research Letters journal, the sustainable global potential for carbon capture in soils by 2050 is estimated to be between 0.5 to 5 GtCO2 per year. To put this into perspective, according to the Global Carbon Project, global CO2 emissions from fossil fuels and industry were estimated to be about 36.4 GtCO2 in 2019. Therefore, the potential carbon capture of soils could offset approximately 1.4% to 13.7% of the annual global CO2 emissions from these sources.
As referred to in ‘The Book of Wilding’, our world’s soils house 1,500 billion tons of carbon in the form of organic material. By restoring and enhancing degraded agricultural lands, we could increase the carbon content in soils by just 0.4% per year. This could halt the annual increase of CO2 in the atmosphere, significantly contributing to the Climate Change objective of limiting the global temperature increase to +1.5˚C. It would also boost global food security by improving soil fertility and stability.
‘The Book of Wilding’ mentions how Knepp has recently witnessed an exciting soil carbon development. Research conducted on the estate, involving Agricarbon who quantified the soil carbon stocks of the property, yielded astonishing findings.
The results are soon to be published in a scientific journal, however, Annie Leeson, CEO of Agricarbon, expressed her awe in a recent article in The Times. She stated, “It’s remarkable. I haven’t seen such a clear demonstration on anything like this scale, or with this level of evidence, anywhere in the world.”
The article continues by quoting Charlie Burrell, “To put this into perspective, a single tree takes 100 years to absorb one tonne of CO2. This new research positions “rewilding grassland” far ahead of any other carbon-capture schemes currently in use. Moreover, it’s much quicker and significantly less costly. The process of rewilding grassland is simple: reintroduce the animals that should be there, stop spraying it, then… leave it”.
At present, two major projects concerned with carbon sequestration are underway at Knepp. Nancy Burrell, the daughter of Charlie and Isabella Burrell (co-owners of Knepp), is studying carbon capture values of new vegetation and woody scrubland across Knepp for her PhD at Oxford University. Simultaneously, cores from the Southern Block are taken for Knepp to build a verifiable carbon credit system that could be rolled out to rewilding projects across the country.
‘The Book of Wilding’ is a treasure trove of knowledge, experience, and practical advice. Within its beautiful pages lies an argument for the regenerative transition and its means of delivery, including the need to measure soil carbon. It’s a book that not only looks good on your bookshelf but also feels great in your hands. It’s a tome that inspires action and fosters a deeper understanding of the changes of the era, our world, and our place within it.
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