The Source, our Annual Review 2019

Peatland Treasures

Peatland Treasures

Peatland Treasures Develop and promote sustainable land-use on re-wetted peatlands

We have made progress to influence policy in four peatland regions. Together with the Alliance for Global Water Adaptation and GIZ we developed guidance that provides govern- ments with the building blocks to include wet- lands in their UNFCCC Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) planning and reporting and we will work with the NDC Partnership and individual countries in 2020 to roll this out. In the Himalayas we mapped the presence of peat and used this to influence the Indian government’s NDC. We assessed the NDC potential of Nile Basin wetlands as a contribution to a wider pro- gramme of work with governments in the region. Protect and conserve the remaining intact peatlands

Rehabilitate and restore degraded peatlands

Restoration to reverse degradation is progress- ing steadily in two major peatland regions and at smaller scale in others. We provided technical advice to the Russian government regarding investments around Moscow, where about 100,000 hectares of peat has been rewetted to reduce fire risk. We supported the Indonesian Peatland Resto- ration Agency to restore more than 765,000 hectares through a mix of direct restoration and technical advice. We supported canal blocking to rewet and restore the Badas peat dome, Brunei, also reducing fire risk. With the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil we delivered training for wise hydrological management of oil palm plantations on peatland, however our roadmap towards sustainable peatland management for pulp and paper plantations in Indonesia was rejected by industry.

Although substantial progress has been made, more time will be needed for widespread uptake of paludiculture, or agriculture on wet peatlands. In Europe, we succeeded in our advocacy to have paludiculture included in the EU’s Com- mon Agricultural Policy post-2020 definitions which designates this as a supported land-use in 27 countries. Together with government and private sector actors we established the Paludiculture Forum for Southeast Asia and through this worked with 350 households where villagers planted 250 hectares with sago in Indonesia. The Indonesian Peatland Partnership Fund (IPPF) resulted in a further 3500 hectares of sustainable paludiculture development that supported improved community livelihoods in 17 villages.

Governments and key (peatland based) private sector invest in at least 5 peatland regions have reversed the degradation of over 3 million hec- tares of degraded peatlands (7% of the global area of degrad- ing peatlands) achiev- ing substantial GHG emission reductions.

Governments and key (peatland based) private sector (e.g. palm oil, pulp for paper, biofuels) as well as local commu- nities are actively pilot- ing or upscaling paludi- culture as an innovative means for sustainable and peatland landscape management and cli- mate change mitigation.

Governments and key private sector actors (drivers of conversion) in at least 4 key peatland regions have active pol- icies to avoid the devel- opment, conversion and degradation of intact peatlands.

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Wetlands Annual Review 2019

Wetlands Annual Review 2019

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