Peatland
The United Nations Environment Assembly in Nairobi, Kenya, recently adopted its first ever Peatland Resolution.
The adoption of the global resolution on the Conservation and Sustainable Management of Peatlands encourages Member States and other stakeholders to put greater focus on the worldwide conservation, sustainable management and restoration of peatlands.
It is not lawfully binding, however.
WHAT ARE PEATS?
Peats are a heterogeneous mixture of plant material that has accumulated in a water-saturated region and is only partly decomposed due to the lack of oxygen (vascular plants, mosses and humus).
Peatlands are the natural areas covered by peat. Swamp forests, fens, bogs or mires are various forms of peat.
In permafrost regions towards the poles and at high altitudes, in coastal areas, under tropical rainforests and in boreal forests, they are mainly found. Russia, Canada, Indonesia, the USA, Finland etc. are the countries with the highest peatland areas.
Several multilateral conventions take peatland into consideration such as UNFCCC, Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, Convention on Biodiversity and United Nation Convention to Combat Desertification.
Brazzaville Declaration: signed in the context of the 3rd Conference of Partners of the Global Peatlands Initiative (GPI), 2018, to encourage better management and protection of the Cuvette Centrale Region in the Congo Basin.
Global Peatlands Initiative: is an attempt to conserve peatlands as the world's largest terrestrial organic carbon resource by leading experts and organisations and to avoid them from being released into the atmosphere. It is headed by the United Nations Environment.
SIGNIFICANCE OF PEATLAND:
- Carbon Storage: While less than 3% of the global surface is covered, it is estimated that peatlands hold twice as much carbon as forests in the world.
- Supporting the water cycle: controlling water flow, exerting a cooling effect by evaporation and cloud formation during hot periods, playing an important role in the conservation of contaminants and nutrients and purification of water, counteracting eutrophication of water bodies and also preventing salt water intrusion.
- Supporting rare and critically endangered biodiversity: A variety of endangered species, including Sumatran tigers, gorillas and orangutans, live in the tropical peatlands.
- Supporting livelihoods: in the boreal and temperate regions, they are the source of fruit, mushrooms and medicinal plants and of non-timber forest products in the tropical regions. The peat itself is also used as fuel.
- As a cultural landscape and archive: some of the most evocative geological finds of recent decades, such as the 'sweet tracks' of the 4th millennium BCE footpath.
Risks to Peatland :
- Agricultural drainage: Drained peatlands are primarily used for agriculture and forestry, and for horticulture and energy production, peat is removed. CO2 emissions are measured at 1.3 gigatonnes of CO2 per year from drained peatlands. 5.6 percent of global anthropogenic CO2 emissions are equal to this.
- Commercial Forestry: It is the second largest cause of changes in peatland land use, mainly prevalent in Scandinavian countries , the United Kingdom, Russia, South East Asia, etc.
- Peat extraction and use: Peat is used by households on a wide scale as an energy source. It is also used for the production of growing media for skilled horticulture and for home gardening as raw material.
- Development of infrastructure: conversion of coastal peatlands to meet urban development, waste disposal needs, road development and other infrastructure.
Way ahead:
In order to preserve these endangered habitats and their services to people, a landscape approach is crucial and good practises in peatland management and regeneration must be communicated and applied across all peatland landscapes.
- Rewetting: It is an vital phase in the regeneration of peatlands since their sustainability depends on waterlogged conditions.
- Plaudiculture and sustainable management techniques: This is a method of growing crops on damp soils, particularly in peatlands. Fish farming or the pursuit of ecotourism may be other sustainable techniques.
- Legal and Fiscal environment and Policies: It is important to properly enforce various policies that have been placed in place at both global and domestic levels.
- With the protection of conventional non-destructive uses and the implementation of novel management alternatives, local communities should obtain funding for the sustainable management of their peatlands.
- Building a market to finance the maintenance of peatlands: using financing instruments such as green bonds, private capital (equity and debt), government funding, etc.
- Institutional structure for collective action: It is important to develop integrated global partnerships.
- Limiting new agricultural and industrial practises that threaten their long-term sustainability and designing policies for long-term land use that encourage peatland conservation and protection.
- Capacity building: Focused action is needed for capacity building, outreach and awareness raising with funding from developed countries.
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To better understand their size and status and to enable us to safeguard them, a thorough mapping of peatlands worldwide is important.