Peatlands are one of the world’s biggest carbon sinks. These naturally waterlogged boggy swamps can hold thousands of years’ worth of compressed, partially decomposed vegetation matter — despite covering just 3-4% of Earth’s land surface, they’re thought to store more carbon per area than the world’s forests combined.
In honor of World Peatland Day on June 2 we present three recent Mongabay stories that shed light on this critical ecosystem.
World’s peatlands are underprotected
Peatlands only function well as carbon sinks if they remain wet and undisturbed, Mongabay’s John Cannon reported recently. As people drain or burn peatlands, often to make way for agriculture, peatlands turn from a carbon sink into a carbon source.
Researchers recently found that only about 25% of peatlands in the tropic and temperate regions, and 11% of boreal peatlands, have some form of protection, Canon reported. Additionally, more than 25% of peatlands, covering some 1.1 million square kilometers (about 425,000 square miles), overlap with Indigenous territories.
Researchers told Cannon that there are “massive benefits” to protecting and restoring peatlands, especially given the density of carbon that peatlands hold on a relatively small portion of the planet. “The return on investment is quite high,” said study lead author Kemen Austin.
Colombia’s unexpected peatlands
A recent study in Colombia found peatlands are more widespread than previously known, making the country South America’s second-largest peat reserve, after Peru, contributor Erik Iverson reported for Mongabay.
Researchers took sediment cores in 100 wetlands and combined that data with satellite imagery to build a model to predict other peat-forming wetlands in the country.
The researchers estimated that Colombia’s peatlands hold 1.9 billion metric tons of carbon, or as much as 70 years’ worth of carbon emissions from fossil fuels in Colombia.
Moreover, they found peat in unexpected ecosystems, including Colombia’s seasonally dry Llanos and nutrient-poor white-sand forests, which are home to a unique type of stunted forest. Both findings suggest there may be more undiscovered peatlands in similar ecosystems across other South American countries.
Flooding risk for Indonesia’s peatlands
In Indonesia, unchecked exploitation has left nearly half of the country’s peatlands vulnerable to flooding, Mongabay’s Hans Nichols Jong reported recently.
Peatlands can absorb 100-1,300% of their dry weight in water. In comparison mineral soils typically absorb only 20-30%. However, peatlands across Indonesia have been drained or burned to make way for industrial oil palm or pulpwood plantations. The degradation has compromised their ability to act like a sponge and efficiently absorb water. Instead of soaking up water, standing water on these peatlands now become uncontrolled runoff, causing flooding in nearby areas, Jong reported.
“The floods occurring are not a natural cycle commonly found in peatland ecosystems,” said Wahyu Perdana from the peatland watchdog group Pantau Gambut. “These floods result from peatland degradation due to improper land use and the mismanagement of peatland functions.”
Banner image: Peatland deforestation in Indonesia. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.
