The Soil Value Exchange: Unlocking nature’s value via the market

As the reality of a carbon-neutral market and future takes form, all available resources will need to be focused upon removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. In this regard, no alternative is more promising today than nature-based solutions. Restoration of native ecosystems and the use of management concepts such as adaptive multi-paddock (AMP) grazing for ranchland have the potential to reliably store vast amounts of carbon in near-surface soil at very low cost. If only half of the existing US grazing lands is managed differently than now, these healthy soils could store from 10 to 23 percent of US carbon dioxide emissions every year. Moreover, healthy soils will significantly enhance the economic profitability and drought and flood resilience of ranches. To date, no trading system meets the needs and requirements of the private landowners that control the land that has the ability to sequester these immense amounts of carbon dioxide. The Soil Value Exchange (SVX) is designed to support landowners as they manage their property to promote healthy soils and soil carbon storage by (1) implementing a soil-carbon trading system based on robust soil carbon measurements that works for land owners and carbon credit buyers, (2) providing grants for land management consultant support, and (3) providing grants to support soil carbon measurements. SVX has established collaborations with expert land consultancy organizations and has a goal of enabling the storage of 10 million metric tons of carbon dioxide each year in 2024 and 100 million metric tons of carbon dioxide credits each year in 2028.