Carbon sequestration contract with EDP

This agreement was aimed at the sequestration of about 7000 tonnes of CO2 per year between 2006 and 2012 in order to show the feasibility of using natural agro-forestry carbon sinks in the national reduction in the emission of greenhouse gases.

Four potentially carbon sequestrating activities were considered: new forest plantations, forest management, direct seeding and planting of Sown Biodiverse Pastures. In the first three activities the contract was established only with Quinta da França, and the remainder took the form of subcontracts for carbon sequestration in 14 other farms.

The project ended in 2012 and achieved the desired goal of 49 000 tonnes of CO2 sequestrated. In the first two years of the project, 2007 and 2008, carbon sampling methodologies were also developed in agricultural, grassland and forest soils.  Biomass stocks for part of the forest area were also quantified by aerial means.

The implementation of the sampling and quantification methodology of carbon in the soil involved a number of entities:

• Terraprima, promoter of the project;

• Laboratório Químico Agrícola Rebelo da Silva (INIAV), which contributed to the methodology by collecting soil samples and analysing their organic content;

• SGS as external process verification entity;

• The Portuguese Environment Agency considered as the leading national body for methods for calculating carbon sequestration, chosen by the National Emissions Inventory of the Kyoto Protocol (NIR ) considered in this project , as reference methods .