Projet d'amorce - Mapping and assessing the health of black soils in Cameroon: A starting point for black soils protection and suistainable

Black soils are critically important for climate change mitigation, because of their high soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration potential. Moreover, although they represent only 5.6% of the world's land surface, black soils are key for food security and the global economy since crops grown on these soils not only feed the local population, but also for those living in countries that import various products that originate from crops that have been cultivated on them. However black soils are exposed to various threats since they have been intensively cultivated for several centuries. While more and more voices are calling to secure black soils, the literature highlights the lack of knowledge and in-depth studies on black soils in Africa. This lack of research limits our understanding on the actual sever degradation processes and as such reduces the awareness of local farmers. This has also consequences for the policymaking process concerning the protection and sustainable management of black soils, which relies on scientific evidence. In essence, the protection of black soils in sub-Saharan Africa is critical and requires to generate more information including a map indicating clearly the spatial distribution of these soils and the associated soil health and/or degradation status. The main objective of this project is to provide a clear map of black soils spatial distribution and the associated soil health and/or degradation status in Cameroon. This map will be very useful to the Cameroon’s policymakers to formulate an agro- and soil management strategy. Furthermore, we will also collect pilote data on black soils that will be ciritical to address black soil degradation threats in Africa.