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Carbon Management for Promoting Local Livelihood in the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) Region pp 185–196Cite as

Prospects of Biochar for Carbon Sequestration and Livelihood Improvement in the Tibetan Grasslands

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Abstract

As the key part of HKH, the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau supports the largest population of pastoralists (10 million) in the world. Livestock production on the plateau produces large quantities of dung, but approximately 80% is collected for energy purposes such as cooking and heating needs, which is a link with carbon cycling being a source of carbon to soil and livelihood activity i.e by providing energy and imrpoving grassland productivity. However, inefficient combustion of the dung results in indoor as well as environmental pollution with adverse impact on human health. Heating biomass in oxygen-limited conditions transforms the biomass into bio-oil, syn-gas and a carbon-enriched material known as biochar. Biochar can be used to store carbon in soil and to improve soil quality. This chapter explores the importance of biochar for grasslands restoration and the potential of dung biochar for carbon capture and for increasing grassland productivity. In addition, future biochar research directions to restore grasslands and to improve the livelihood of the pastoralists are discussed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. UK Biochar Research Centre, School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

    Muhammad Khalid Rafiq & Ondřej Mašek

  2. Rangeland Research Institute, National Agricultural Research Center, Islamabad, Pakistan

    Muhammad Khalid Rafiq

  3. School of Sociology and Philosophy, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China

    Jamila Sharif

  4. School of Life Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-Ecosystems, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China

    Zhanhuan Shang, Yanfu Bai, Fei Li & Ruijun Long

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  1. Muhammad Khalid Rafiq
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  2. Jamila Sharif
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  3. Zhanhuan Shang
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  4. Yanfu Bai
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  5. Fei Li
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  6. Ruijun Long
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  7. Ondřej Mašek
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu, China

    Zhanhuan Shang

  2. Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel

    A. Allan Degen

  3. Pakistan Agricultural Research Council, Islamabad, Pakistan

    Muhammad Khalid Rafiq

  4. University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia

    Victor R. Squires

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Rafiq, M.K. et al. (2020). Prospects of Biochar for Carbon Sequestration and Livelihood Improvement in the Tibetan Grasslands. In: Shang, Z., Degen, A., Rafiq, M., Squires, V. (eds) Carbon Management for Promoting Local Livelihood in the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) Region. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20591-1_10

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