Ecology

Drainage pipes and ditches are still being used to drain peatlands. Rewetting is urgently needed to protect both the climate and biodiversity. But how does this work – and what do we have to consider?

Three percent of the world’s peatlands have been destroyed for forestry purposes, releasing large quantities of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Drained peat soils are the scene of devastating fires that are used to clear land.

Our consumption of livestock products has an effect on the climate – through the emission of greenhouse gases and the conversion of natural landscapes into agricultural land. Even more greenhouse gases escape into the atmosphere when peatlands are drained to allow livestock-keeping or to grow fodder crops.

Peat consists of dead organic matter accumulated over thousands of years. Since centuries, peat soils have been exploited to obtain fuel or raw material for growing media. Peat extraction and use is harmful to the environment. Sustainable alternatives will only prevail if politicians act.

Peatlands all over the world sustain a rich range of habitats and species, including a wide range of threatened and endemic ones. Policymakers are called upon to protect these unique landscapes.

Humans have drained peatlands for centuries to provide land for farming and settlement. History may help us recognize the fallacies of supposed improvement, remember the presence of destroyed and often invisible peatlands in our landscapes, and advocate for the protection and restoration of peatlands.

Because they take up greenhouse gases, peatlands cool the climate – but only as long as they are intact. But these peat-covered areas have been – and still are being – drained for agriculture, forestry, peat extraction and human settlement, exacerbating global warming.

Peatlands and other types of wetlands foster biodiversity and protect humans and nature from drought and flooding. But they are some of the most threatened ecosystems on the planet. Current efforts to conserve them have so far proven inadequate.

Huge areas of peatland around the world have already been destroyed. In the tropics, peat swamp forests are being cut down and the land drained. Fires and climate crisis also pose threats. Attempts to protect the peatlands have so far had little success.

Peatlands exist in the mountains, in lowlands, along rivers and at the coast. Their vegetation and condition vary from one climate zone to another, but all types of peatland have one thing in common: their continued existence is in danger.