The underlying question is whether the capacity of soil to bind carbon, and thus keep it out of the atmosphere where it contributes to global warming, can be enhanced by anthropic intervention involving recommended land use and soil/crop management. The soil-erosion dimension of that is explored by scientists from around the world — including such countries as Laos, Benin, and Burkino Faso. They cover basic concepts and general approaches to the global carbon cycle, erosion, and eroded carbon; soil and carbon erosion from agro-ecosystems at the plot scale; and solubilization and carbon transfers in rivers and deposition in sediments. The 20 papers were selected from a September 2002 conference in Montpelier, France.