Happy #BogDay!
Oh my… what’s a “bog”!? If you were born in Ireland, it’s probably part of your life. If you were born in Spain like me… almost a mystery!
This 27th of July we “celebrate the brilliance of bogs, fens, swamps and marshes”, all different types of peatlands (great initiative, IUCN Peat!). From the top of the mountains to the coasts, from moors to rainforests, when the soil is full of water and the plant material does not fully decompose, peat is formed and stored over hundreds of years, in layers that can be centimeters to meters thick. Diversity of peatlands is huge, but they all have some characteristics in common: they store carbon in the soil - as much as one third of soil carbon of the planet, while they only cover 3% of it’s land surface!-, they are gigantic sponges that store water – buffering both floods and droughts-, and hold unique and rare plant and animal species. And they are in danger.
If we compare the global health of peatlands to that of wetlands in general, we may be tempted to say they are not doing that bad. The #GlobalWetlandsOutlook, recently launched, estimates that we have lost 22% of wetlands globally since 1970, while “only” 16% of peatlands were destroyed or degraded. Well, as if 16% less were not bad enough... And note that global statistics hide relevant information, like the fact that in Europe we already degraded half of our peatlands, or that half of tropical peatlands have disappeared and continue to do so at an alarming rate.
Peatland destruction is probably worst for us, people, than it is for peatlands themselves. They are an essential asset of humanity to help keep the climate within safe limits: we need them in good health!
That’s why at Wetlands International - with Greifswald Moor Centrum, UN Environment Programme, FAO, GEC, Landscape Finance Lab, The Nature Conservancy (TNC), Convention on Wetlands and the High Level Climate Champions Team- we are launching the #PeatlandBreakthrough: an initiative to draw attention on the need to conserve, restore and better manage peatlands, a global push to mobilise public and private stakeholders to take action to save peatlands, their biodiversity, the climate and our quality of life and cultures.
Let me wish you again a happy bog day, with the hope that we all wake up to need to take action to save peatlands... and act. Now that we know what they are!
(Feliz cumpleaños papá, va por ti)
