This presentation was given at the Global Landscapes Forum on 16 November 2016 in Marrakesh, Morocco. http://www.landscapes.org/

1. Deforestation (CO2, CH4, N2O)
Fire (CO2, CH4, N2O)
Drainage and subsidence (CO2, CH4, N2O)
Increased drought frequency (CO2, CH4,N2O)
Peat extraction (CO2)
Big win 3: Investing in protecting peatland ecosystems
Global Landscape Forum 2016. Kenzi Club Agdal Medina
16th November 2016, Marrakech

2. Why investing in peatland ecosystems for climate mitigation?
• Carbon dense ecosystems, higher mitigation returns per unit
area. Synergies with adaptation and co-benefits.
• Global drained and burned peatlands: 1GtCO2e.yr-1 (10% of
global AFOLU GHG emissions in 2000-2009) (IPCC R5)
• Increased risks due to drought, fire and agriculture expansion
• Main peatland mitigation is conservation, cheaper than restoration
• Political momentum: sink protection through Paris Agreement
Social momentum: Transboundary haze effects: peatlands have
reached public opinion through health
• Transparency initiatives: TRASE. Connecting commodity
producers, distributors and consumers. https://ttp.sei-international.org/
• New data on peatlands.

3. Barriers to peatland mitigation?
• Technical
• Establishing a peatland baseline
• Establishing an MRV system to assess soil degradation and
to assist robust GHG Inventorying
• Political framework
 Political will, long term vision, policy reforms
• Social requirements
 Social endorsement, inclusion of non-stake actors: particularly the
private sector
• Financial requirements
 Long term financial support

4. Establishing a peatland baseline
Where are the peatlands?
Pastaza Marañón (Peru)
Cuvette Centrale Congolese (Congo- Congo DRC)
C2 C
1
C
3
Unbiasing continental contributions to tropical
peatland. Gumbricht et al. (under review)

5. South America: Amazon Basin, Rio La Plata,
Ibera Wetlands
Asia: Bangladesh,all river deltas,
Indonesian Papua
Africa: Niger river delta, Angola,
Zambia, South Sudan.
Underreported peatland hotspots
Gumbricht et al. (under review) Global Change Biology

6. Total area
Mkm2
Volume km3 Depth (m) Stocks*
GtC
Estimates in Page et
al., (2011)
0.44
(0.39-0.66)
1,758
(1,585-1,822)
2.3 89
Gumbricht et al.
(study area of Page
et al., (2011)
1.5
6,991
(5,765-7,079)
2.5 352
Mitigation potential of tropical peatlands
• Tropical peat stocks: Four-fold increase (89 to 352 GtC)
• Mitigation potential using conservative annual emissions: 0.3 GtC.yr-1
(IPCC AR5)
Mitigation potential gross
Table 1: Estimates of tropical peat variables. Source: Gumbricht et al. (under review)
Global Change Biology. * Using standard values for bulk density and carbon content

7. Deforestation (CO2, CH4, N2O)
Fire (CO2, CH4, N2O)
Drainage and subsidence (CO2, CH4, N2O)
Drought (CO2, CH4, N2O)
Peat extraction (CO2)
What actions are needed? Drivers

8. How can we achieve these potentials?
1. Conserving undrained peatlands, Not such a thing as
sustainable oil palm management over drained peat (First
International Peat Congress) (Wijedasa et al. 2016)
2. Rewetting,
3. Alternative uses (paludiculture over wet peat).

9. Questions?