Accounting for peatlands: Kyoto and beyond
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Transcript of Accounting for peatlands: Kyoto and beyond
Peatlands are fascinating, diverse, beautiful àndimportant for the climate!
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Compared to other formations peatlands contain extraordinary much carbon, largely in their soil
In the boreal zone they hold 7 times, in the tropics even 10 times more Carbon per ha than other ecosystems
Drained peatlands on 0.4 % of the land emit 5% of the global anthropogenic CO2, this year even 10%
Peatlands emit in PNG 13x, Burundi 10x, Iceland 5x, Mongolia 4x, Zambia 3x and Finland 2x more than fossil fuels & cement
In 25 countries peatlands emit > 50%, in 50 countries >10 % compared to their emissions from fossil fuels & cement
Peatlands produce 30 % of all emissions from agriculture
In Germany peatland agriculture emits twice as much CO2 as the 7th dirtiest power plant in the world
In Germany peatland agriculture causes € 3.6 billion climate damage per year … with € 300 Million EU- subsidies (CC)
Sabine Wichmann
‘Biogas’ from peatland maize causes per Joule energy 8x more climate damage than burning lignite (with EEG subsidy…)
The world upside down:
We pay to create damage
… and frustrate in this way sensible solutions
Peatland rewetting provides per ha and year twice as much emission reduction as a tropical rainforest can sequester
Initial drained land use
Emission reduction after rewetting (incl. CO2, CH4, N2O + DOC; in t CO2-e ha-1 yr-1)
Temperate zone Boreal zone
Forest Land 6 2
Cropland 28 34
Grassland 20 25
Peat extraction sites 9 11
Why do peatlands not get attention?
• Peatlands are unknown, diverse, not recognized• ‘Peatland is a swamp’ – negative connotation• ‘Small cannot be important’• ‘Too many gases – too complex’• ‘Peatland is peat-land and land sector is corrupted’ • ‘Peatlands are wild lands’
… this is a peatland in the tundra …
Yakutia, RF
Brunei
… this is a peatland in the tropics …
…this is a peatland 1000 km from Antarctica…
Tierra del Fuego Argentina
Colombia
…this is a peatland in the high mountains …
Archangelsk, RF
… this is a peatland in the sea …
Not recognized - not appreciated: the Cinderella Syndrom
Ruoergai, China
Ramsar Convention ‘overlooked’ peatlands during 25 years
Zapata, Cuba
…although the city of Ramsar is surrounded by peatlands…
Ramsar, Iran
UNFCCC 2006 (Nairobi): In Kenya there is no peat…
10 km from the Convention venue
UNFCCC 2011 (Panama): We didn‘t know we hàd peat swamps
Peat swamp deforestation
Finland Fen-landSuo-mi
With its peatlands largely drained
How much peatlands does Finland have?Every Fin knows, but every Fin knows something else…
Forests are beautiful…
… Peatlands are ugly…
Problem: Our land culture had a semi desert as a cradle…
…and has since the idea that productive land must be dry…
…and soils continuously be moved…
…illusions that we worldwide apply to wet, organic soils…
Greta Gaudig
with desert plants on drained peat in Indonesia: Aloe vera
Bostang Radjagukguk
… or semi-arid Maize on drained peat in Germany…
Palm oil can grow and produce well on peat… or with oil palm on drained peat in Malaysia…
Marcel Silvius
… and also forests on drained peatland in Scotland…
Although forests can grow wet…
And wet peatlands may be extremely productive
The peatland problem has to be addressed in Kyoto under Forest-, Cropland- and Grazing Land management
ActivitiesCountries
Forest Management
Cropland Management
Grazing land Management
Revegetation
Denmark
Estonia Finland Iceland Latvia Lithuania Norway Russian Fed. Sweden
But there it did not happen as parties did not choose the activities (cf. NorBalWet countries in 1st Commitment Period)
Accounting for Cropland Management and Grazing Land Management was thought to be too difficult …
And forestry anyhow does not see the soil for the trees…
IPCC 2013-Supplement
IPCC 2013 GPG LULUCF
2012 Durban UNFCCC - KP
”Wetland drainage and rewetting”” is a system of practices for draining and rewetting on land with organic soil that covers a minimum area of 1 hectare. The activity applies to all lands that have been drained since 1990 and to all lands that have been rewetted since 1990 and that are not accounted for under any other activity as defined in this annex, where drainage is the direct human-induced lowering of the soil water table and rewetting is the direct human-induced partial or total reversal of drainage.
‘Wetland Drainage and Rewetting’ was created as a dedicated peatland hotspot KP activity and IPCC provided guidance
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Peatland rewetting must be done in nature conservation sites …
… and evidently in peat extraction sites
But the bulk (80%) and the real challenge is in peatland agriculture that we have to change from dry to wet
Germany
With paludiculture: agriculture and forestry on wet and rewetted peatlands!
Polen
Peatlands must be wet!
