PEAT Network

An effort by leading experts and institutions to save peatlands as the world’s largest terrestrial organic carbon stock and to prevent it being emitted into the atmosphere. 13+ Partners to the Initiative are working since 2016 together within their respective areas of expertise to improve the conservation, restoration and sustainable management of peatlands, contributing to the Goals of Sustainable Development.

GPI works on assessing the status of peatlands, their importance in the global carbon cycle, and for national economies.

The GPI Research Working Group offers great training sessions to help build, improve and enable inter-disciplinary research, capacities, and to help advance and harmonize peatlands research approaches across regions. GPI aims to strengthen the network by inspiring and facilitating impactful collaboration across the global peatlands research community. Trainings are open to anyone interested, scientists, professionals and other peatland loving folks.

The Convention on Wetlands is the intergovernmental treaty that provides the framework for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources. The Convention was adopted in the Iranian city of Ramsar in 1971 and came into force in 1975. Since then, almost 90% of UN member states, from all the world’s geographic regions, have acceded to become “Contracting Parties”.

The Convention’s mission is “the conservation and wise use of all wetlands through local and national actions and international cooperation, as a contribution towards achieving sustainable development throughout the world”.

Check out the interactive map showing Ramsar-sites around the globe.

Find out about World Wetlands Day celebrated on February 2nd.

Wetlands International (WI) is a global not-for-profit organisation dedicated to the conservation and restoration of wetlands. WI’s vision is a world where wetlands are treasured and nurtured for their beauty, the life they support and the resources they provide.

WI proposes rewetting 50 million hectares of peatlands worldwide by 2050 to stem emissions and allow peatlands to resume their role as carbon sinks. If given the technical capacity and access to finance, local communities can contribute significantly to the task of managing and rehabilitating peatlands. WI works with communities, industry and to restore peatlands for climate mitigation and adaptation, and facilitate sustainable land use to develop and secure local livelihoods.

Get involved with the inspiring work of WI in peatlands around the globe and become a member, partner, specialist consultant, or volunteer.

The International Peatland Society (IPS) is an organisation of individual, corporate and institutional members dedicated to the responsible management and Wise Use of peatlands and peat.

Vision: To be the leading international organisation promoting the responsible management and wise use of peatlands and peat.

Mission: To serve all those involved in peatlands and peat through the promotion, gathering, exchange and communication of knowledge and experience, by means of events and projects which address key issues, including climate change, biodiversity, the need for responsible use and restoration.

To achieve its goals, the IPS via its Commissions and National Committees regularly organises conferences, symposia and workshops and publishes research results from science and industry. 

Since its founding in 1980, the Society of Wetland Scientists has continued to grow, with more than 3,000 members from the United States, Canada, Mexico, and many other countries around the world! SWS is committed to providing its members with meaningful resources that promote wetland research, education, conservation, and restoration, globally.

SWS offers webinars not only specifically for members, but also quarterly for non-members and Spanish language webinars.

Special member rates offered for students.

An international network of specialists who internationally promote, encourage and, where appropriate, co-ordinate the conservation of mires and related ecosystems; and internationally enhance the exchange of information and experience relating to mires and factors affecting them. The network encompasses a wide spectrum of expertise and interests, from research scientists to consultants, government agency specialists to peatland site managers. The network currently has over 550 contacts in almost 60 countries.

Check out their website to have a look at their bulletin, view a digital fieldtrip of South African peatlands among other activities, or become a member. New bulletin issues are usually announced via the FAO’s Organic Soils and Peatlands Mitigation Initiative mailing list (see below for more information).

The Wetland Knowledge Exchange is the official newsletter, webinar series, and social media account of the Canadian Conservation and land Management (CCLM) Wetland Knowledge Portal (WKP). The Wetland Knowledge Exchange aims to amplify the voice of the WKP to help increase information sharing and foster collaboration amongst diverse stakeholders interested in wetland management, conservation and reclamation. 

The Wetland Knowledge Exchange webinar series is organised by Ducks Unlimited Canada and the NAIT Centre for Boreal Research.

Re-Peat Earth are a youth-led collective pushing for a peatland paradigm shift. Members are from the Netherlands, Italy, UK, Ireland, Germany, Estonia. Some of the current members study peatlands at a university level, some others work with peat “in the field”, and others are simply peatland enthusiasts who care for the ecosystem’s conservation and restoration. Re-Peat host many online events, including the famous week-long Peat-Fest. Subscribe to the peaty newsletter to stay up do date or join the initiative to get active. 

The C-PEAT Working Group aims to facilitate the interactions of international peat carbon researchers working on peat of all ages, including ecosystem and global modelling scientists. They focus efforts on the Holocene because of the abundance of information available, but also explore pre-Holocene peats.

C-Peat’s goals are to expand the C-PEAT database to the tropics and extra-tropics, where humans are a major agent of change in tropical peatlands, to predict peatland responses to natural and anthropogenic disturbance, and to further develop and promote the use of multi-proxy peatland records as paleoclimatic archives.

The C-Peat group is open to anyone who is interested. Early-career researchers are encouraged to get involved.

This programme exists to promote peatland restoration in the UK and advocates the multiple benefits of peatlands through partnerships, strong science, sound policy and effective practice. Their website includes a map of peatland projects around the world and numerous other resources for peatland conservation and restoration. They regularly release a newsletter, offer training courses, organise conferences, and offer carbon credits via the Peatland Code.

Produced by the Greifswald Mire Centre (GMC), the paludiculture The Greifswald Mire Centre is – as an interface between science, policy and practice – innovator and originator in solutions for peatlands, locally and worldwide.

newsletter aims to keep a growing community informed on peatlands and paludiculture. You will find news from research, practice, politics, as well as announcements of conferences and other events and recommended publications. The newsletter is issued at irregular intervals in German and English.

The Succow Foundation is an operating foundation and is active both nationally and internationally. It follows the guiding principle: Preserving, maintaining, preserving value. 

Initially, the foundation was involved in the development and protection of national parks and biosphere reserves in post-Soviet countries with a handful of employees. In the meantime, the foundation has grown to more than 30 employees and implements projects on four continents on climate protection, protected areas, sustainable land use and the promotion of young talent. Thanks to the expertise of its staff and board of trustees, the foundation is well positioned in all landscapes – from peatlands to deserts.

Become a moor-godmother or -godfather – and save regional peatlands.

Online community of practice for learning and sharing on peatlands and climate change. The discussion is moderated by FAO.

A community for Peatlands and climate change mitigation is a group of people working for climate change mitigation on peatlands. The Initiative of organic soils and peatlands climate change mitigation is in development.

The mailing list is curated by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). It aims to create a community for discussing and sharing resources related to peatlands and climate change mitigation. The initiative is being further developed and more information will be released as it grows. 

The Irish Peatland Conservation Council’s (IPCC) mission is to protect a representative sample of the peatlands of Ireland for people to enjoy today and in the future. The IPCC is a registered charity (Revenue Number CHY6829 and Charities Regulator Number 20013547) and a non-governmental organisation.

Experience a fantastic adventure while visiting the Bog of Allen Nature Centre.

The LIFE project Peat Restore consists of nine partners from the countries Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Germany and aims to develop peatlands on an area of approximately 5,300 hectares into near-natural habitats through restoration measures, thus restoring the natural function of carbon storage.

In its climate and energy policy, the EU aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by 2030 compared to 1990. To achieve this ambitious goal, it is essential to actively involve peatland protection. The peatlands in the Baltic States and Poland, most of which are severely degraded, are particularly important in this respect. This area represents one of the emission hotspots of the earth and at the same time offers a very high potential for saving climate-relevant gases.

Moors for the Future Partnership was founded in 2003 with a single Heritage Lottery Fund project. Moors for the Future Partnership deliver a landscape scale programme of blanket bog restoration across the Peak District and South Pennine moors. Over 35 sq km of degraded peat, the most degraded landscape in Europe, have been transformed.

Help the Partnership by collecting data for their citizen science project.

Youth Engaged in Wetlands or “YEW” is an international youth team committed to the conservation, protection, and wise-use of wetlands. YEW provides a global platform for young people to enable and empower them to help support the mission of The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands.

Youth Engaged in Wetlands will provide a global platform for young people to enable and empower them to help protect and promote our wetlands through: raising awareness, building capacity, fostering partnerships, campaigning for action, and exchanging information.