World’s largely unprotected peatlands are ticking ‘carbon bomb’, warns study | Climate crisis

A study warned that the world’s peat lands are “dangerous” despite the huge amount of climatic climate carbon dioxide that have already resurrected due to their destruction.

Wooden lands occupy only 3 % of all lands, but it contains more carbon than all forests in the world. However, farmers and miners drain the peat lands, and they release many posts₂ If they are a country, they will be the fourth largest pollutant in the world after China, the United States and India.

The first global evaluation found that only 17 % of peat lands were among the protected areas. This flagrantly contrasts with other valuable ecosystems such as tropical forests, where 38 %, and mangruv (42 %) have been protected.

Protection was less than an average of 17 % in the three countries with most peat lands: Canada, Russia and Indonesia. The United States and Brazil have completed the five best countries, which included nearly three quarters of peat lands, and had higher proportions in protected areas. But the researchers have warned that the state protected on the map has not always been translated into strong protection on the ground.

Scientists said that preserving peat lands and their restoration is necessary to maintain global heating less than internationally agreed goals and reduce the damage to life and livelihoods.

Almost a quarter of the peat lands under severe pressure from human activities.

However, the work to defend the lands of peat was an effective means of cost to address the climate crisis, as the researchers said, and their quarter were in the lands of the original peoples, which were proven to be suffering Less environmental deterioration From anywhere else.

Dr. Asatin said at the Wildlife Preservation Association, which led the study But protection levels were “dangerously low”. The carbon lands not only store carbon, but also in the trap of water, which helps to prevent floods and dryness, and the formation of many algae, flowers, birds, fish and butterflies. She said: “Its value is locally and on a global scale, enormous.”

Austin said: “The carbon in the lands of peat took hundreds of thousands to thousands of years to accumulate and cannot be replaced on the timetables related to climate change,” Austin said. “For this reason, the lands of peat are sometimes referred to as a carbon bomb, because once this bomb is ignited, these emissions will continue, and we do not restore this carbon.”

However, because peat lands are a very thick carbon ecosystem, “The explosion in Back is really high when we think about protecting it,” she said.

Creed lands, also called swamps, Fens, swamps, Mires and Muskeg, are wetlands where dead vegetables and slow decomposition accumulate due to the presence of water materials. However, the draining or lands of the annoying peat of agriculture, mining, or roads and other infrastructure exposes carbon to air and leads to Co₂ It is launched in the air. In total, the carbon stored in peat lands equals more than half a century of current global emissions.

the study , Posted in letters to preserve a magazineAnalyzing the percentage of peat lands that were in different types of protected areas. While 17 % were in a type of protected space, about half of that is completely protected. In the Republic of the Congo, nearly 90 % of peat lands fell into protected areas, but less than 1 % have strict protection.

In the UK, which ranked twelfth in the world, according to the Khatta Land region, 41 % decreased in protected areas. Besides Indonesia, the United Kingdom was one of the few countries with a comprehensive strategy to support its support to support its national climatic plans. However, about 80 % of the swamps In the United Kingdom, it has already been deteriorated through attrition, exhaustion, and burn.

The researchers said that the expansion of protected areas is important to protect peat lands, but the management and financing of the current protected areas had to improve the largest possible number of funding. The environmental regulations that protect lands from harmful exploitation will help, as well as improve land rights for the original peoples, especially when the protection of hedic lands was linked to the sale of carbon credit.

There are also important opportunities in 2025 to add the protection and restoration of peat lands to the national climate plans and diversity that countries must provide to the United Nations bodies.

Professor Chris Evans, at the UK Center for Environment and Hydrology, said that the study was important. , Gigatonnes of carbon keeps it hiding under the surface.

He said that the pegs that are provided now can be improved Reducing drainage depthAnd a procedure that had the ability to reduce global emissions by about 2 % while maintaining the Earth in agricultural use.

“There is a risk that we may lose the carbon basin in peat lands,” said Professor Heiko Balzter, at the University of Lesstrin in the United Kingdom. He said Heat and dehydration waves get worse due to global heating He also threatened to keep the peat lands: “This is another reason to protect them quickly.”