Peatlands are unique ecosystems formed of plant material that has partially decomposed, forming peat when soil becomes saturated with water. Also known as bogs, mire, moors and marshlands, and even featuring in some tropical forests and swamps, peatlands store up to a third of the world’s soil carbon. This is double the amount captured in the whole of the earth’s forest biomass, as they absorb the carbon dioxide that plants use during photosynthesis.
The Global Peatlands Initiative, led by the UN Environment Programme, aims to save peatlands to prevent carbon from being emitted into the atmosphere. Its Global Peatlands Assessment outlines how some 50% to 60% of peatlands consist of carbon, more per hectare on average than all other ecosystems. They are the largest carbon stock in the biosphere, globally storing between 450,000 million and 650,000 million tons.
A Global Feature
Peatlands are estimated to cover about 500 million hectares (1.2 billion acres) in at least 177 out of 193 countries, where conditions, such as the climate, substrate (surface on which organisms grow) and hydrology (how water moves in relation to the land) keep the soil permanently wet. Some 33% of peatlands are in Asia, with 32% in North America, 13% in Latin America and the Caribbean, 12% in Europe, 8% in Africa, and 2% spread between Oceania and Sub-Antarctic Islands.
The Katingan Project in Indonesia, for example, protects 149,800 hectares (about 370,000 acres) of peatland in central Kalimantan, home to one of the largest remaining peat swamp forests in the country.
Human activity destroys 500,000 hectares (1.2 million acres) annually, and global estimates show that a total volume of about 2 billion tons of CO2 are emitted every year through degraded peatlands, excluding fires.
Human activity destroys 500,000 hectares (1.2 million acres) annually, and global estimates show that a total volume of about 2 billion tons of CO2 are emitted every year through degraded peatlands, excluding fires.
Biodiversity
Given their varied wetland systems, peatlands are home to species such as orangutans in Southeast Asia, bonobos and gorillas in Central Africa, and the aquatic warbler in Europe. They also support other species during migrations.
Among the members of the Global Peatland Initiative is the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Emma Hinchliffe, director of the IUCN UK Peatland Programme, offers a UK perspective: “Peatlands are the UK’s largest semi-natural habitat.[…] We have three broad different types of peatland—we’ve got blanket bog, we’ve got lowland raised bog, and we have fens as well.”
Species that are attracted to peatlands are those that depend on their waterlogged nature. “We’ve got this really beautiful diversity of algae that lives within the peatlands, within the film of water that exists around plants,” explains Hinchliffe. “And then you’ve got this whole host of microscopic animals that feed on the algae, [..] all the different species of sphagnum moss. […]. It’s that kind of microscopic landscape that they form and all the roughness and complexity and texture that they create over the surface that gives us, for example, some of our water quality. Roughness helps us slow the flow of water over the surface to help delay flood peaks.” UK peatlands are also teeming with insects, wading birds, reptiles, and mammals.
Agriculture
The biggest risk to peatlands is drainage. Hinchliffe claims that in post-war UK, “there was this agricultural incentive to improve the land. And part of that improvement was really through large-scale drainage incentives.”
The biggest risk to peatlands is drainage. “Once those tunnels are open within the peat, water moves through them, and they keep eroding and that, in itself, leads to habitat loss because a lot of the species are dependent on a wetland environment.”
“The drainage doesn’t really tend to repair itself. Once those tunnels are open within the peat, water moves through them, and they keep eroding and that, in itself, leads to habitat loss because a lot of the species are dependent on a wetland environment.” Drainage also puts at risk peatland’s carbon stores.
Overgrazing and burning are two other cross-boundary problems related to the use of peatland for agriculture. And peat is widely extracted and added to compost for horticulture.
Atmospheric pollution
Temperate and boreal peatlands (found in northern regions) and blanket bogs are particularly sensitive to the atmospheric deposition of nutrients from agriculture, particularly nitrogen and phosphorus, often deposited through rainfall, which can change the vegetation.
Afforestation
In the UK, conifer plantations have been planted on expanses of blanket bog. Not only is the land drained, which risks the release of the stored carbon, but there are also implications for biodiversity. Hinchliffe claims: “A lot of the scientific evidence is starting to point towards the benefits of removing forestry and restoring peatlands in terms of carbon balance.
“Trees and peatlands are two of our biggest natural climate heroes […] and you shouldn’t really be compromising one for the other by putting trees on peat.”
Restoration
But it’s not all bad news—peatland restoration is gaining momentum. The IUCN UK Peatland Programme, a networking and partnership-building organization comprised of practitioners and land managers, is among those leading efforts. It carried out an assessment of peatlands through the Commission of Inquiry on Peatlands back in 2011. And the development of a UK strategy has for the first time set a target of restoring 2 million hectares (4.9 million acres) by 2040.
The main restoration technique involves rewetting the land. “Once you rework the area and that water level stops coming back up in the drainage ditches, everything else starts to respond and repair.”
Techniques
The main restoration technique involves rewetting the land. Hinchliffe states: “Once you rework the area and that water level stops coming back up in the drainage ditches, everything else starts to respond and repair.” Others involve changing the vegetation, by, for example, planting sphagnum moss.
Restoration Projects
Over the last 150 years, Black Hill has faced atmospheric pollution from nearby industrial towns and cities. Wildfires created expanses of bare black peat. But through a partnership program involving a range of stakeholders, such as the Environment Agency, Natural England and the National Trust, 50 million sphagnum fragments were spread to promote peat building.
Work at Langlands Moss Local Nature Reserve had initially focused on protecting and conserving 20 hectares (49 acres) of raised bog, but, in 2018, a feasibility survey found an estimated 298,199.6 cubic meters (about 10.5 million cubic feet) of peat underneath an adjacent forest. As a result, the boundary of the nature reserve was extended, doubling its size. Over 21 hectares (51 acres) of conifer trees were felled, and 21 dams and five “bunds” (low level banks of peat, which slow the loss of water and promote the growth of sphagnum) installed. The project will restore all the peatland to improve the hydrology and expand the natural lagg zone (fen vegetation).
Cors Fochno, Wales
Cors Fochno is the largest actively growing raised bog in the lowlands of the UK. It has peat up to 26 feet deep but has in the past been drained and subject to peat cutting. The restoration, carried out in partnership with the local community, landowners and contractors, has been ongoing since September 2020 as part of the New LIFE for Welsh Raised Bogs project. It involves removing invasive species and scrub and introducing light grazing, as well as restoring water levels through peat bunds, so wildlife and rare plants can thrive, carbon can be stored, and water purified. More than 8 miles of peat bunds have been created.
How People Can Help
There are several ways of helping—from raising awareness of this little-known ecosystem to avoiding products containing peat such as certain composts for the garden, or produce grown unsustainably on peat soils, such as dairy goods from the Netherlands.
Volunteering is also an option: “There are a lot of communities out there […] where there’s the opportunity to go and volunteer and physically help,” says Hinchliffe.
*Yasmin Prabhudas is a freelance journalist working mainly for non-profit organizations, labor unions, the education sector, and government agencies.