Grant: Alliance Grants

Native prairie grasslands are major carbon sinks, and their conservation affords the largest opportunity for GHG mitigation in Canada. Over 70% of grasslands have been converted to cropland, however, and the loss of protective policies such as Community Pastures and the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration threatens this valuable GHG sink. Grasslands also provide valuable ecosystem services, are important rangelands for cattle, and are irreplaceable sources of medicines and cultural practices for Indigenous peoples. Our team, working with Indigenous, NGO, and rancher partners, will explore Nature-Based Solutions (restoring native grass species, conserving grasslands, and ranchland management) to identify, monitor and verify land management practices that maximize carbon sequestration and inform Canada's GHG reporting. We will integrate climate modelling, land management strategies (planting, stocking, grazing, conservation), and community-based science to identify, monitor, and validate approaches to re-establish soil carbon sinks. Grasslands represent the largest biome in the world, and initiatives like this can make us a global leader in grassland carbon storage and management.The objectives of this program are to: 1. Improve carbon accounting by including sources and sinks across all components of the prairie grassland ecozone, and under varied management practices;2. Integrate climate change, land-atmosphere interactions, land management and carbon storage models to assess the value of grasslands as nature-based climate solutions;3. Co-develop strategies, support tools, and policies incorporating Indigenous, western science, and producer perspectives, for alleviating barriers to mitigation and adaptation actions, and; 4. Align carbon accounting for grasslands with the Canadian National Inventory Report to reduce uncertainty and foster innovation in land management.