Challenges and perspectives
Wetland Management
Susanna Tol – Wetlands International HQ
Rouergai, China
Preventing and reducing peatland emissions is currently not addressed by the global climate treaty…
Main call:Protect and restore peatlands under a
post-2012 climate framework
• Peatlands are the most space-effective carbon stocks of all terrestrial ecosystems:
Boreal zone: 7 x more carbon per ha; Tropics: 10x
• 3% of the world’s land area, 500 Gt Carbon
Equivalent to all terrestrial biomass, and 2 x the carbon stock in the total forest biomass of the world
Sequestration and long-term storage of carbon require permanent waterlogging. When drained, peatlands become vigorous sources
of carbon dioxide (and nitrous oxide)…
…that continue emitting until all peat is oxidized…
Peatlands are found in 175 countries.Worldwide: 4 million km2
Yakutia, RF Borneo
Kyrgystan Archangelsk, RF
from the tundra …to the tropics…to the mountains…to the sea…
0.3 % of the land surface is responsible for 6 % of the total global anthropogenic CO2 emissions…
Drained peatlands: emission hot spots
Largest emitters from peat drainage (in Mtons/yr, excl. peat extraction and fires)
Indonesia 500
Russia Eur. part 139
China 77
USA (lower 48) 67
Finland 50
Malaysia 48
Mongolia 45
Belarus 41
Germany 32
Poland 24
Russia Asia 22
Uganda 20
P. New Guinea 20
Iceland 18
Sweden 15
Brazil 12
United Kingdom 10
Estonia 10
World picture
• Global CO2 emissions from drainage: 1.3 Gton/a (excl. extracted peat and fires)
• Annex 1 countries: 0.5 Gton CO2
• 15 countries higher peat than fossil fuel emissions
• SE Asia: peat emissions = 70% of fossil fuel emissions
• Sub-Sahara Africa (excl. South Africa) peat emissions = 25% of all fossil fuel emissions
• Since 1990 peatland emissions have increased in 50 countries (including 40 developing countries)
Causes of emissions
• Main hotspot SE Asia: deforestation, fire…and peatland drainage for palm oil and pulp
• Drained and abandoned peatlands in C&E-Europe
• Peatland drainage for agriculture in Uganda• Peatland mining,overgrazing and
desertification in Mongolia• Drainage, overgrazing
and erosion in China
Less emissions can be achieved through peatland rewetting
Germany
Rewetting pilot projects in many parts of the world
UK
Peatland rewetting
Emission reduction potential:
• Gross 2 Gtons on 500,000 km2
• Nett: much less• Half of the CO2 reduction annihilated by CH4
emissions after rewetting
realistic several 100s Mton CO2-eq./yr
• Preventing and reducing peatland emissions is currently not well addressed by the global climate treaty…
Reducing peat emissions in Annex I
Call for LULUCF:
• Mandatory accounting for wetland management• Working towards land-based accounting
Most comprehensive and fair.
Reducing peat emissions in Annex I
Bio-energy:• Introduced through incentives KP• Energy and land use are closely interlinked• Pressure biofuel and food crops on land not being
accounted• And on land for which opportunity costs are low• Projected peatland drainage for biofuels, windmills,
……• MANDATORY ACCOUNTING CAN HELP
PREVENTING THIS• And concentrate such land use on degraded land
Reducing peat emissions in Annex I
Reducing peat emissions in non-Annex I
Call for REDD+:
REDD: reducing emissions from organic soils: • Protecting intact natural peatswamp forests• Restoring degraded peatswamp forests
AND:• emissions from non-forested peat soils
Downloadable from
www.wetlands.org and www.imcg.net
Further reading…
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