This chapter addresses the mismatch between existing knowledge, techniques and management methods for improved soil carbon management and deficits in its implementation. The paper gives a short overview of the evolution of the concept of soil carbon, which illustrates the interactions between scientific, industrial, technical, societal and economic change. It then goes on to show that sufficient techniques are available for the large-scale implementation of soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration. A subsequent analysis of the bottlenecks that prevent implementation identifies where issues need to be addressed in order to enable robust, integrated and sustainable SOC management strategies.Leibniz Ctr Agr Landscape Res ZALF, Inst Soil Landscape Res, Muncheberg, GermanyBasque Ctr Climate Change, Bilbao, SpainErnst Moritz Arndt Univ Greifswald, Inst Bot &Landscape Ecol, Greifswald, GermanyPenn State Univ, Crit Zone Observ, NSF, University Pk, PA 16802 USANanjing Agr Univ, Inst Resource Ecosyst &Environm Agr, Nanjing, Jiangsu, Peoples R ChinaUniv Estadual Paulista Unesp, Araraquara, SP, BrazilPotsdam Inst Climate Impact Res, Potsdam, GermanyUniv Sheffield, Kroto Res Inst, Sheffield S10 2TN, S Yorkshire, EnglandISRIC World Soil Informat, Wageningen, NetherlandsNanjing Normal Univ, Sch Geog Sci, Nanjing, Jiangsu, Peoples R ChinaETH, Swiss Fed Inst Technol Zurich, Sustainable Agroecosyst Grp, Zurich, SwitzerlandUniv Nacl La Pampa, Fac Agron, Santa Rosa, La Pampa, ArgentinaUniversidade Estadual Paulista Unesp, Araraquara, SP, Brazil