Rock, Carbon, Peatlands! Awww, sorry, Carbon. You lost!
Peatlands are like wetlands – but with a superpower: they have a unique ability to sequester huge amounts of soil carbon.
- Peatlands contain twice as much carbon as all the world’s forests and four times as much as the atmosphere, according to estimates. Climate Links
- Tropical peatlands store the most carbon, and 68% of tropical peatlands are found in Southeast Asia. Climate Links
Peatlands in Canada
With hundreds of thousands of kilometres worth of peatlands, Canada is home to ¼ of the world’s soil carbon.
- The Peatlands of the Northwest Territories alone hold about 24 billion tonnes of carbon – a “globally significant” amount
Canada needs to protect and restore its Peatlands
With such a high percentage of the world’s soil carbon being stored in Canada, protecting the Canadian peatlands has major implications.
So for peat’s sake (pun intended), let’s protect this stuff already!
What can be done?
- Identify where the peatlands are
- Increase research to better understand how to encourage natural processes in peatlands
- Create a management or land-use plan to care for them
- Create financial incentives for protecting peatlands
Dig Deeper: Check out this article from CBC News to learn more about the Canadian Peatlands, their significance in carbon sequestration, and what is being done to protect them.