World Peatlands Day – 02nd June
World Peatlands Day – 02nd June
The International Peatland Society (IPS) launched World Peatlands Day in 2019. It occurs on June 2nd every year, marking when the draft constitution of the IPS was adopted at an international symposium in Aberdeen in 1967. Peatlands are terrestrial wetland ecosystems in which waterlogged conditions prevent plant material from decomposing completely. And so, the production of organic matter always exceeds its decomposition, resulting in an accumulation of peat. There are peatlands in every climatic zone and continent, covering 2.84% of the Earth’s terrestrial surface.
Present in more than 180 countries, peatlands are vital, super-powered ecosystems. They have the potential to be a natural solution to reducing greenhouse gas emission. They store nearly 30 per cent of its soil carbon. They can add more carbon by sequestering carbon from the atmosphere thus, tackle the climate change. They provide vital services such as controlling water supplies and preventing floods and droughts and provide many people with food and fuel. They also house rare plants and animals that can only survive in these unique, watery environments.
Despite their importance, peatlands around the world are being drained and converted for agriculture, infrastructure development, mining and oil and gas exploration. Peatlands are also being degraded by fire, overgrazing, nitrogen pollution and extraction of peat as fuel and as a growing medium. Despite covering only 0.4 per cent of the global land surface, drained peatlands are responsible for more than 5 per cent of our carbon emissions, and much more when they are burning.
Because organic matter accumulates over thousands of years, peat deposits provide records of past vegetation and climate by preserving plant remains, such as pollen. This allows the reconstruction of past environments and the study of changes in land use.
Peatlands protection and restoration can be a low-cost, low-tech and high impact nature-based solution for both climate action and biodiversity.
– Source: Internet –