Peatlands store more carbon than forests

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According to the United Nations Environment Programme peatlands are critical ecosystems and their deteriorating condition is exacerbating the climate crisis. They store twice as much carbon as the world's forests, and only 17 percent of peatlands currently have a safety net in the form of rainforests.

Peatlands are found in more than one hundred and eighty countries and most are found in Asia and North America. Some bogs are open without trees others are surrounded by trees in primeval forests. The largest tropical peatland in the world is located in the Congo River basin in Africa and is called the Cuvette Centrale.

Peatlands store 550 billion tons of carbon and much of it has been accumulated and stored over millennia making peatlands the largest natural carbon store on land. In addition to storing carbon they are also a focus of biodiversity and home to many rare and endangered species of animals and plants. They also help prevent floods and droughts.

Preserving and restoring forests farmland and coastal marine ecosystems can help tackle the challenges of climate change and deliver the roughly thirty percent reduction in emissions needed to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Peatlands have been under threat for hundreds of years mainly due to drainage for agriculture and forestry. Unfortunately a warming climate can also contribute to the drying out of bogs. Dried peatlands are also vulnerable to fires. In 2020 wildfires in Siberia burned a record amount of peatland releasing massive amounts of carbon into the atmosphere and creating a polluting haze. Extinguishing peat bogs is very difficult and burning them releases hundreds of times more carbon than a burning tree.

A quarter of the world's peatlands are currently under direct threat. The study revealed that 1.5 to 2.5 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions are released into the atmosphere annually from damaged peatlands.

All over the world efforts are being made to preserve and protect peatlands. In Indonesia they irrigate or restore one million hectares of peatlands. Sweden and the United Kingdom which have created a strategy to restore eighty percent of their peatlands, are also working hard to restore their peatlands. By 2050, more than eight trillion dollars will need to be invested in nature-based solutions.

Protecting and restoring tropical peatlands alone could reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by 800 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent per year which is around two percent of global emissions.

Source:Weforum