PEATLANDS 2022
Resilient wetland communities
In the High Andes of Peru, we worked with the herder communities to change their land management practices, resulting in 2,400 hectares of peatlands under improved livestock grazing management offering sustainable income in harmony with nature. We clarified barriers and enablers for scaling up wetland restoration and make it a part of the Green Deal transition in Europe. This information helped inform decision-makers and experts engaged in peatland restoration in Europe. As a result of our advocacy efforts, the EU is now shifting its stance and accepting the significant role that improved peatland protection, increased paludiculture (wet peatland farming) and carbon farming can bring to the Green Deal implementation. Including these aspects in the Common Agriculture Policy is key for upscaling since it will drive the largest farm-subsidy stream in Europe and help ensure that peatlands are recognised in the new EU Carbon Farming initiative. Through the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, we developed Drainability Assessment training modules and delivered training in East and West Kalimantan (Indonesia) for RSPO members. The training has the potential to influence practices on 4.5 million hectares of plantations under the RSPO scheme. We advocated on the EU’s external trade policy that reduces the import of ‘deforestation’ related commodities, including deforestation for palm oil and pulp plantations. We see this as a major upscaling mechanism which can result in real impact. Playing the role of critical friend on the Board of Responsibly Produced Peat, we pushed to transform the industry from excavating peat for growing media to growing peatmoss and rewetting the underlying peatlands. Financially supported by the Dutch government, RPP is recognised in the Dutch Growing Media Covenant signed in 2022 to phase out extracted peat in the short-term for the domestic market and in medium-term for the professional market while ensuring that all peat used in this transition comes from least environmentally impacting methods. In Brunei, we supported the Biodiversity Action Plan developed for a corporate in rehabilitating degraded wetland areas within the Belait District, one of the last almost intact peat swamps and an important bird area.
By 2030, we aim to enable community based conservation and restoration of 10 million hectares of peatlands.
Our Goal is to scale up the conservation and restoration of peatlands as a contribution to biodiversity conservation, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and sustainable development. For this, it is vital to ensure that all remaining undrained peatlands stay intact, while 50 million hectares of drained peatlands are restored by 2050.
While a solid foundation to reach the target by 2030 has been set, influencing EU policy has been slower than expected. The global uptake is also not as quick as anticipated.
Healthy wetlands
Shaping, collating and sharing knowledge to enable others to take action on peatlands is central to our upscaling plan, and we built partnerships such as the EU-funded WaterLANDS and Wet Horizons (EU Horizon 2020). We updated the wetlands and peatlands database for Europe, providing the evidence needed for governments and policymakers to act and track restoration progress. We used such evidence to influence the EU Nature Restoration Law and Carbon Farming regulations under development. The former sets legally binding peatland restoration targets and now includes wetlands outside of protected sites, providing a strong basis for upscaling peatland restoration by farmers and rural communities in Europe. The latter sets the stage for mobilising carbon finance for wetlands. To rewet 500,000 hectares of degraded peatlands in Europe, we facilitated learning and coordinated action across Europe by leading knowledge exchange on peatland restoration carbon standards, bringing together stakeholders form Germany, Poland and Lithuania. Beyond Europe, we stimulated South-South knowledge exchange and learning between Asia and Africa resulting in uptake of best practices on peatland restoration across our network and stakeholders. We supported the Government of Argentina to designate a new Ramsar protected wetland covering an area of 350.000 hectares of valuable peatlands, by developing the Peninsula Mitre’s Ramsar site Information Sheet - a key step towards securing its conservation.
Reduced climate risks
By 2030, we aim to safeguard over 20 million hectares of high value peatlands, including bringing 5 major peatland landscapes back into good ecological condition.
By 2030, we will reduce the impact of peat-based industries in 10 million hectares of peatlands, with a focus on palm oil, pulp and timber.
We have started work in 4 major peatland landscapes – in Peru, Mongolia, Poland and Sweden. We have also focused on building capacity and knowledge sharing, part of our strategy to mobilise towards safeguarding 20 million hectares.
Through the RSPO, we worked to influence and reduce the impact of oil palm plantations (as well as pulp and timber) on vast areas of peatlands. We are on track in 2022 to deliver by 2030.
We developed landscape restoration propositions for Lake Junin in Peru and central valley peatlands in Mongolia. We also developed propositions for the Oder Delta in Poland and Norrbotten in Sweden with our partner Rewilding Europe to test a commercial peatland restoration model based on carbon value. We also explored opportunities to unlock carbon finance for peatland restoration in six other European countries, paving the way for upscaling.
We reduced the climate impact of peat-based industries by influencing commodity chains that produce on peatlands to change practices, such as palm oil, pulp and timber, and by promoting sustainable commodities.
Wetlands International Annual Review 2022
Wetlands International Annual Review 2022
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