© CAB International 2015. Soil Carbon: Science, Management and Policy for Multiple Benefits (eds S.A. Banwart, E. Noellemeyer and E. Milne) 47 Abstract This chapter addresses the mismatch between existing knowledge, techniques and management methods for improved soil carbon management and deicits in its implementation. The paper gives a short overview of the evolution of the concept of soil carbon, which illustrates the interactions between scientiic, industrial, technical, societal and economic change. It then goes on to show that suficient techniques are available for the large-scale implementation of soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration. A subsequent analysis of the bottlenecks that prevent implementation identiies where issues need to be addressed in order to enable robust, integrated and sustainable SOC management strategies. 4 From Potential to Implementation: An Innovation Framework to Realize the Benefits of Soil Carbon Roger Funk*, Unai Pascual, Hans Joosten, Christopher Duffy, Genxing Pan, Newton la Scala, Pia Gottschalk, Steven A. Banwart, Niels Batjes, Zucong Cai, Johan Six and Elke Noellemeyer *E-mail: rfunk@zalf.de Introduction In this chapter, we address the need for the wide-scale implementation of a strategy for improved soil organic carbon (SOC) manage- ment. Such a strategy can be denoted gener- ally as innovation, but would also include new methods of governance. In this paper, we deine innovation as the improved use of novel but readily available methods or tech- nologies. In addition, it includes a change of the current behaviour by managing SOC in a different way. A broad range of SOC manage- ment methods and techniques has been proposed and tested. Many have already demonstrated their applicability and advan- tages, including implementation strategies (Reicosky, 2003; WOCAT, 2010; Batjes, 2011; FAO, 2011). However, there is still a gap between recognition of the positive aspects of these innovations and the extent of their im- plementation. We might ask: what are the reasons for delays in implementation? Obvi- ous impediments are temporal and spatial mismatches across scales; that is, long time delays and the large physical distance be- tween the places of implementation and the beneicial effects that result. Discrepancies between private and social beneits and the costs of SOC management are also crucial. To be successful, innovations must pass certain thresholds in the rate of adoption in order to be self-sustaining. The widespread adoption of an innovation is inluenced strongly by cultural, social and economic factors such as issues surrounding communication and ways of managing the time delay associated with the achievement of beneits (Rogers, 1962).