Dirt Rich - the movie

I posted on the trailer back in March but now it is on temporary general public release (until 12Oct).

You can view the film from this link:
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2018/10/06/carbon-sequestration-biochar-for-soil-health.aspx

Their FB page: https://www.facebook.com/DirtRichTheMovie/

Thailand workshop 18-20 February

Dates have now been fixed for the biochar workshop at Warm Heart.

Check out their Environmental Program here...
http://warmheartworldwide.org/biochar-research-environment/
A fantastic setting to learn about biochar.

Here is a link to the latest workshop flyer. Do get into touch with me or Evelind if you want to make a booking. Numbers are limited to about 15 and transport planning needs to be coordinated so please make contact soon if you are interested in finding out more on this.

Message from Thayer at IBI...

Reaching out to Regional Biochar Groups: State of the Industry Data Collection Effort

Dear colleagues,

I’m emailing you today because we’re in the midst of reaching out to our community to request information for our 2015 State of the Biochar Industry data collection effort. We were able to include over 200 companies last year and are hoping to have a stronger data set this year.

To do this, I need your help. I’m asking you, as a regional biochar group leader, to send this message out to your colleagues asking them to please take our survey at http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/2260737/Biochar-Business-Survey-for-2015? It is at most 20 minutes and usually takes less time depending on responses. We conduct this survey to collect data on activities related to the commercial production, distribution, and marketing of biochar and biochar-related products and services. The deadline for input is October 31, 2015. You may review the published results from prior years at: http://www.biochar-international.org/commercialization.
We recognize that companies want to be sure that the information they submit is private. IBI will maintain the confidentiality of all information collected in this survey. Data will be presented in aggregate for trending analysis and the only personal information shared will be basic contact information such as website and location, in order to illustrate the growth in biochar/biochar-related businesses. In addition, we are launching a 4-question anonymous survey to ask biochar producers about the volume of biochar produced and sold at http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/2264439/Biochar-sales-volume-anonymous.

Thank you in advance for your participation and I hope this finds you well.

As usual, please feel free to send me any regional group updates on your activities for inclusion in our next newsletter.

Thayer

Ms. Thayer Tomlinson

International Biochar Initiative

Communications Director

(802) 257 5359

www.biochar-international.org

IBI is a non-profit, member-supported organization and is counting on your generous donation to put the Earth "Back in the Black". Please join us at: www.biochar-international.org/join

Malaysian Biochar Workshop

INVITATION TO ATTEND THE BIOCHAR MALAYSIA WORKSHOP 2015, 6 APRIL 2015, FACULTY OF ENGINEERING, UNIVERSITI PUTRA MALAYSIA

"We are pleased to announce that the Biochar Malaysia Association (Persatuan Biochar Malaysia) will be organizing the Biochar Malaysia Workshop 2015 on the 6^th of April 2015 in the Faculty of Engineering, UPM with the theme 'Biochar Production & Utilization for Cleaner Environment & Crop Production in Malaysia'. The objective of this workshop is to obtain the latest updates regarding biochar production and utilization in sustainable agriculture system.

 

Therefore, we would like to extend an invitation to (you) for attending this workshop. We would also be delighted if (you) could help us disseminate the announcement of this workshop. For further information, please refer to the attached brochure. With this email also attached the BMA membership form and the brochure to Soil Science Conference of Malaysia 2015."

Reply or email to me if you want to get hold of the attachments that accompanied this email invitation. febiochar(at)gmail.com

Biochar For Environmental Management – 2nd Edition

http://soilcarbon.org.nz/biochar-for-environmental-management-2nd-edition/

Hugh McLaughlin - Biochar: A Powerful Tool for Carbon Farming

Very informative 10min from Hugh McLaughlin on biochar production fundamentals. 



"Hugh McLaughlin, an engineer and expert in biochar and activated carbon, discusses the many applications of biochar for environmental improvement and its role in reversing global warming."

The presentation was part of "Biodiversity for a living climate" event. If you have trouble with the viewing frame size here, then look for it and connect via the link above (plenty of other great presentations to be found) or click on the YouTube link.

UTAR Agricluture Science Journal: Biochar - reversing the flow of carbon

HERE is a link to an article on biochar that I've had published in the inaugural issue of the above journal (click on image above for link to the journal).


This is a general introduction to biochar with a focus on history, applications, climate change and carbon sequestration. I hope to say more about biochar production and industry development in SEA in a followup article.

World Bank on Biochar Systems for Smallholders in Developing Countries

Courtesy of International Biochar Initiative: (includes Vietnam case study on rice husk)

The World Bank has recently published the report entitled,

Biochar Systems for Smallholders in Developing Countries : Leveraging Current Knowledge and Exploring Future Potential for Climate-Smart Agriculture

http://fb.me/38njVu2qz

Biochar is the carbon-rich organic matter that remains after heating biomass under the minimization of oxygen during a process called pyrolysis. There are a number of reasons why biochar systems may be particularly relevant in developing-country contexts. This report offers a review of what is known about opportunities and risks of biochar systems. Its aim is to provide a state-of-the-art overview of current knowledge regarding biochar science. In that sense the report also offers a reconciling view on different scientific opinions about biochar providing an overall account that shows the various perspectives of its science and application. This includes soil and agricultural impacts of biochar, climate change impacts, social impacts, and competing uses of biomass. The report aims to contextualize the current scientific knowledge in order to put it at use to address the development climate change nexus, including social and environmental sustainability. The report is organized as follows: chapter one offers some introductory comments and notes the increasing interest in biochar both from a scientific and practitioner's point of view; chapter two gives further background on biochar, describing its characteristics and outlining the way in which biochar systems function. Chapter three considers the opportunities and risks of biochar systems. Based on the results of the surveys undertaken, chapter four presents a typology of biochar systems emerging in practice, particularly in the developing world. Life-cycle assessments of the net climate change impact and the net economic profitability of three biochar systems with data collected from relatively advanced biochar projects were conducted and are presented in chapter five. Chapter six investigates various aspects of technology adoption, including barriers to implementing promising systems, focusing on economics, carbon market access, and sociocultural barriers. Finally, the status of knowledge regarding biochar systems is interpreted in chapter seven to determine potential implications for future involvement in biochar research, policy, and project formulation.

Citation

“Scholz, Sebastian M.; Sembres, Thomas; Roberts, Kelli; Whitman, Thea; Wilson, Kelpie; Lehmann, Johannes. 2014. Biochar Systems for Smallholders in Developing Countries : Leveraging Current Knowledge and Exploring Future Potential for Climate-Smart Agriculture. Washington, DC: World Bank. © World Bank. https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/18781 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”