Peatlands play a significant role in regulating Earth’s climate system, storing around 30% of global soil organic carbon. Emissions from drained and degraded peatlands contribute around 4% of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and are a substantial share of the national GHG budget of some countries. Peatland degradation can also cause subsidence, altered hydrology and increased flood risk, reduced water quality, biodiversity loss and increased fire risk, while intact peatlands support hydrological regulation, nutrient cycling, habitats and cultural values. Because these processes operate at landscape scale but are subject to policy at national scale, land-use inventories and GHG accounting depend on spatially explicit information over large areas.
Recent policy, such as the EU Nature Restoration Regulation, aims to rewet and restore drained peatlands to reduce emissions, sequester CO₂ and improve ecosystem services - often in landscapes with competing land-use interests. Implementation of rewetting and restoration at scale requires not only robust policy but accurate inventories, monitoring, and models that provide information on peatland status and the effectiveness and trade-offs of different measures. National monitoring efforts can vary in completeness and depth and are often based on historical categories and data. Harmonisation is increasingly required to enable benchmarking and compatibility with international reporting standards.
This session invites contributions on peatland systems globally that address 1) GHG accounting, especially higher-tier methods, emission factors and activity data, 2) monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) schemes, 3) mapping of peatland extent, depth, subsidence, water table and condition, 4) national and international standards for carbon markets, and 5) economic and social aspects of peatland rewetting for restoration or paludiculture. We welcome studies on methodological development, field measurements, remote sensing, modelling and interdisciplinary studies, including site-level research where it informs assessment at larger scales.