Welcome to the International Biochar Initiative. IBI is a registered non-profit organization supporting researchers, commercial entities, policy makers, development agents, farmers and gardeners, and others committed to supporting sustainable biochar production and utilization systems that remove carbon from the atmosphere and enhance the earth’s soils. It advocates biochar as a strategy to:
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improve the Earth’s soils;
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help mitigate the anthropogenic greenhouse effect by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and sequestering atmospheric carbon in a stable soil carbon pool; and
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improve water quality by retaining agrochemicals.
The IBI also promotes:
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sustainable co-production of clean energy and other bio-based products as part of the biochar process;
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efficient biomass utilization in developing country agriculture; and
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cost-effective utilization of urban, agricultural and forest co products.
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| Seedlings illustrating the difference between plants grown in biochar-amended soil (darker soil on the right). Photo courtesy of Robert Flanagan |
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| Corn grown in biochar-amended soils (left) and non-amended soils (right). Photo courtesy of BEST Energies |
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IBI supports biochar production and utilization systems that reduce net greenhouse (GHG) emissions on a full GHG lifecycle analysis, that do not contribute to direct or indirect land use change, and that are supported by indigenous peoples and stakeholders.
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IBI announces the Practitioner's Profile:
Stories of producing and using biochar in the field
This Month: Pushing the Frontiers with Biochar and Biochar Mineral Complexes in Arid Zones in Australia
Since 1989 Dr Paul Blackwell has been working to improve the soils in Western Australia. He is based in the northern wheatbelt of Western Australia in Geraldton. Dr Blackwell has been studying methods to improve productivity and land care of the area soils which have poor structure and water repellence. His initial investigations focused on methods of no-till seeding and Controlled Traffic. However, Dr. Blackwell’s more recent investigations are into the value of biochar and biochar-mineral complexes.
At the 2007 IBI meeting in Terrigal Australia, Dr. Blackwell Paul presented his initial findings of his work with biochar produced from oil mallee trees. He developed a method of deep banding biochar into soils and then carried out a series of trials with soluble fertilisers and with a new mineral/biological fertiliser to see the impact on both increase in yields, increase in crop resistance to drought (from inter-row water supply), and increase in soil micro-organisms (especially fungi). For more on this story, click here.
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June 18, 2009: IBI Chairman of the Board, Dr. Johannes Lehmann, Invited to Testify at the US House of Representatives
The hearing, entitled "Global Warming’s Growing Concerns: Impacts on Agriculture and Forestry” will take place Thursday June 18, 2009 at 9:30 a.m. in room 2175 Rayburn House Office Building. Click here to read the invitation as well as Dr. Lehmann's full written testimony.
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Policy Updates: New Countries Support Biochar through Written Submissions to the UNFCCC Negotiating Text
In preparation for the upcoming UNFCCC meeting in Copenhagen (December 2009), negotiators are met in Bonn Germany to discuss negotiating texts and come to consensus before the December international meeting. The Bonn climate talks are the second in a series of five major negotiating sessions ramping up to Copenhagen.. For more information, please click here.
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Just announced! Receive 20% off the new book: Biochar for Environmental Management by ordering now.
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Watch the full Biochar video produced for Poznan by clicking here
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New: Link to ReFShare Database for research abstracts and read new articles on biochar.
Click here
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