Kosfeld Fenna Thesis - Flipbook - Page 41
History of Biochar
The origin of biochar dates back around 2500 years
to the South American Amazon region, where indigenous people have developed, slowly and with mere
intuition, a way to fertilise their soil organically and
circularly. It is what we call Terra Preta, Portuguese
for black soil.
In an article called Conquistadors, cannibals and
Climate Change - A Brief History of Biochar it is described that with the exploration of South America
and exploitation of indigenous societies, the history
or at least awareness of biochar and terra preta has
reached the modern West.
Around 1495, Christopher Columbus received a letter
from the Roya Cosmographer Jaume Ferrer de Blanes
about the New World and the richness of the Amazon
culture and resources.
In 1541, Conquistador Gonzalo Pizarro sent his Lieutenant Francisco de Orellana on a further expedition,
which led him and his troops to the con昀氀uence of the
Coca and Napo Rivers. There, they found a wealthy
and highly developed civilisation of Amerindians.
Orellana’s ships got lost on their way back to Europe,
and he apparently drowned himself. When, in 1637,
Captain Pedro de Teixeira returned to the Amazon
Basin, he saw no trace of Orellana’s reports on established villages, infrastructures, wealth and abundance,
and civilisation.
Archaeological surveys show that where the soil was
the darkest was where large-scale cultivation and recycling of organic waste was happening. Those farmers were implementing their waste ( pottery shreds,
food and animal waste, manure, etc. ) into the soil.
Over centuries, the soil turned into this dark, fertile
matter, hosting microorganisms and offering ideal
conditions for large-scale and nutrient-rich crop yield.
“The critical ingredient, it appears, is carbon.
Terra preta soils contain up to 9 per cent
carbon, compared with 0.5 per cent in
surrounding soils. This is the cause of the
earth’s dark black colouring. The charcoal-like
materials found in terra preta are most likely
Only in 1870, when geologist and explorer James Or- to originate from 昀椀replaces used for cooking
ton travelled back to the Amazon to take tests of the and 昀椀ring clay pots: the patches with the
soil, he discovered that between “typically acidic and highest carbon concentrations appear to be
grey soils of the bason there existed large patches of those situated by village refuse sites.” ( Wayne )
black and very fertile soil” (Wayne. e)
Those were the only traces of this supposedly lost civilisation. The terra preta’s anthropogenic nature makes
it so special and valuable for all research dedicated to
it in the following decades and centuries.
Since this exploration, there has been an exponentially rising interest in Terra Preta as a circular, fertile
solution to 昀椀ght soil depletion caused by urbanisation
and synthetic agriculture. Biochar combines circular
waste management and carbon sequestration, which
touch major problems at their core.
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