The Kyoto Protocol considers soils as an essential component to account to mitigate dangerous concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Two supplementary reports: (1) Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) and (2) Good practice Guidance for LULUCF identify soil organic carbon (SOC) monitoring to be an obligatory when implementing Articles 3.3 and 3.4 of the Protocol. However, these documents provide general rules on the countrywide SOC account and reporting which are insufficient to be practically applied in the agricultural fields and forests. The lack of agreed method to sample soil to certify changes of carbon stock in soils might be a serious constraint for the Kyoto implementation in EU. The urgency to set out common soil sampling extends beyond the protocol. The SOC is a parameter drving a majority of soil ecological functions, e.g. fertility, buffering capacity, absorption of dangerous chemicals, water quality, regulation of atmospheric gas composition etc. Thus this methodology contributes to establish common criteria of soil quality in EU. The scope of the guidance is to set out the main rules for soil-sampling to certify changes of carbon stock in soils caused by LULUCF activities in EU. It includes the following procedures: localization of points from which samples should be taken; identification of sample amount and composition; methods of the sample collection.JRC.H.6-Spatial data infrastructure
