MEXICO CITY, Jun 5 (IPS) - Expanding the capacity of natural areas for capturing and storing carbon is one of the keys to curbing climate change, and would be a relatively low-cost solution that would also improve the quality of life of millions of farmers, the United Nations said Friday.

More attention must be paid to natural carbon absorption, along with cutting greenhouse gases caused by humans, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) stated in a report released to coincide with World Environment Day, which was globally hosted by Mexico.

The report, `The Natural Fix? The Role of Ecosystems in Climate Mitigation', calls for the adoption of a "comprehensive policy framework" on management of carbon - the main greenhouse gas - which would include the conservation and restoration of ecosystems and the management of grasslands and agricultural areas.

"Safeguarding and restoring carbon in three systems - forests, peatlands and agriculture - might over the coming decades reduce well over 50 gigatonnes (50 billion tonnes) of carbon emissions that would otherwise enter the atmosphere: others like grasslands and coastal ones such as mangroves are capable of playing their part too," UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner says in the preface to the report.

Slowing the rate of greenhouse gas emissions "will be impossible without addressing carbon losses from ecosystems such as forests and peatlands. Managing ecosystems for carbon can not only reduce carbon emissions; it can also actively remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere," says the 68-page report.