IMCG Resolutions adopted in Tammela, Finland

During the 12th IMCG biennial meeting in Tammela, Finland, a total of 3 IMCG resolutions were adopted.

IMCG Resolution to Ireland
IMCG Resolution to Russia 2006
IMCG Resolution for Finland 2006

IMCG Resolution to Ireland

The International Mire Conservation Group (IMCG) is a worldwide organisation of mire (peatland) specialists who have a particular interest in the conservation of peatland habitats. IMCG recognises the peatlands of Ireland as being among the most important wetland sites remaining in North–West Europe. The IMCG held its 12th biennial General Assembly in Tammela, Finland in July 2006. At that Assembly the following resolution for Ireland was adopted.

The IMCG acknowledges that the Irish Government has progressed in their conservation of peatlands since our last resolution in 1990. This includes the completion of a national blanket bog survey and evaluation, a national survey of raised bog Natural Heritage Areas (NHAs), the provision of legal protection for the Irish raised and blanket bog NHAs and the adoption of approximately 225 peatland sites as part of the Natura 2000 Network.

However, despite this progress, there are a number of issues that the IMCG feel require the urgent attention of the Irish Government.
Fens (alkaline mires) in Ireland are highly threatened ecosystems and are being damaged by drainage and infilling for either agricultural or development purposes. The IMCG urges the Government of the Republic of Ireland and particularly the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to urgently make an inventory of un-drained, actively peat-sequestering fens in the Republic of Ireland. The objectives of this survey should include:
- to identify the distribution of fen habitats throughout the Republic of Ireland and to assess the conservation significance of each site, including the 67 sites that were identified by the IPCC in the Irish Fen Inventory (2000)
- to identify habitat sites for species threatened in the European Union
- to immediately and effectively protect these peatlands (including their hydrological catchment areas) as Natural Heritage Areas
- to select a representative sample of these peatlands as Special Areas of Conservation in a European context.
Ireland has the most significant area of raised and blanket bog habitat in North-west Europe. Sites of conservation importance have been designated as Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) and Natural Heritage Areas (NHAs). Current Government and EU Policy permit the practice of turf cutting (turbary rights) on designated sites, which is affecting the hydrological integrity of each mire system. The IMCG calls on the Government of the Republic of Ireland and the European Union to immediately ban the practice of peat extraction on all peatland sites of conservation importance.
The IMCG furthermore urges the Irish Government to draft and implement restoration plans for all peatland sites of conservation importance.
The Renewable Energy Policy of the Irish Government threatens upland blanket mires by regarding wind farm construction as sustainable development within these sensitive habitats. The IMCG urges the Government of the Republic of Ireland and particularly the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to encourage the construction of wind farms away from sensitive upland blanket bog areas.

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IMCG Resolution to Russia 2006

The International Mire Conservation Group (IMCG) is a worldwide organisation of mire (peatland) specialists who have a particular interest in the conservation of peatland habitats. The IMCG held its 12th biennial General Assembly in Tammela, Finland in July 2006, attended by members from 21 countries and 6 continents, including 8 participants from the Russian Federation.
IMCG is aware that the Russian Federation has the largest area of peatlands in the world containing a great diversity of mire types.
IMCG recognizes:

the significant input of Russian science to the global knowledge on mires and peatlands,
the significant achievements in mire protection within the well developed system on Strict Nature Reserves (Zapovedniks) and National Parks,
the strictly enforced and environmentally friendly forest, water and land use legislation, especially the designation of mires as water objects and providing forest protected zones in river sources and around mires, and
the recent adoption by the Russian Federation of the Peatlands Action Plan, as well as input by the country into promotion of peatlands in the Ramsar process.

At the same time IMCG expresses concern about the new tendency of the Russian policy makers to allow the non-sustainable exploitation of mires and peatlands rather than actively promoting conservation and the wise use of these valuable natural assets. Evidence of this tendency includes: current attempts to amend legislation giving the opportunity to misuse mires; serious losses of protected areas at the regional and local level; active lobbying by the peat industry to allow large-scale development of peat extraction; mismanagement of abandoned peatlands, resulting in extended peat fires in 1999, 2000 and 2002.

We stress that the excellent background information for mire wise use available from Russian mire scientific schools is not being used by decision makers and funding for research activities has significantly declined.

To avoid moving backwards in mire conservation, IMCG calls for several specific actions to be adopted in the environment policy of the Russian Federation:

To sustain existing environmentally friendly legislation which is the background for the current good status of Russian peatlands;
To maintain and secure the developed system of protected areas in Russia, especially on regional and local levels, where 20 million hectares of mires are currently preserved;
To promote an integrative approach to mire ecosystems management as part of river basins, especially taking in account the achievements of Russian mire hydrological science;
To introduce environmentally friendly management of abandoned peatlands, excluding peat fires and other activities that negatively affect the ecosystems;
To introduce rewetting and restoration of mires after use;
To minimize the impact of oil and gas industry development on the unique mire ecosystems;
To prioritise conservation efforts to mires vulnerable to climate change – in permafrost areas, steppe and forest steppe zones;
To designate peat as non-renewable energy resource;
To avoid the overexploitation of peat by foreign companies especially on the western borders;
To promote peat free horticultural products;
To promote, extend, disseminate and apply on practical level the unique knowledge of Russian mire science;
To promote and develop transboundary cooperation in mire conservation;
As a Contracting Party to the main biodiversity related conventions as well as to the UNFCCC and its Kyoto protocol, to promote peatland conservation and actively use convention mechanisms to achieve this.

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IMCG Resolution for Finland 2006

The IMCG is extremely impressed by the variation in the mires of Finland. With peatlands covering 30% of its area, Finland is one of the most important peatland countries in the world. In particular the aapa mires illustrate the surface patterning resulting from the complex and long-term interactions between plants, water, snow, ice and peat. The Finnish-Saami terms “aapa” and “palsa” have been adopted internationally to describe specific mire types. Finnish mire scientists have substantially contributed to global understanding of peatlands. In recognition of this important role, the IMCG has conferred honorary membership on two distinguished Finnish mire scientists and conservationists Seppo Eurola and Rauno Ruuhijärvi.
And last but not least IMCG has enjoyed the extensive areas of protected mires and the impressive interpretation facilities that are so necessary to convey the values of mires to the national population and foreign visitors.
We have, however, also observed issues of concern.
The IMCG is shocked that so many Finnish mires have been irreversibly destroyed by drainage for forestry, agriculture and peat extraction. The national statistics of the condition of the peatlands give a biased impression. In contrast to our expectations raised by a figure of 30 % of remaining pristine mires, we did not experience pristine mire landscapes - not even in National Parks, where traces of former (and persisting) drainage are evident.
The IMCG strongly urges the local and national governments of Finland to meet their international responsibility and to protect and conserve the remaining pristine peatland ecosystems. This includes the cessation of drainage and peat extraction in intact mire sites and the abandoning of current and planned groundwater extraction that may affect these sites.
None of the Parks we have visited covers the complete hydrological system, so that present and future conflicts with competing land use outside the park boundaries are inevitable. To our amazement we observed, for example, how groundwater extraction sites are situated or planned in (e.g Kauhaneva) or directly adjacent (e.g. Olvassuo) to groundwater-dependent peatland national parks and reserves.
Finland should urgently revise the boundaries of its protected areas to enable the restoration and protection of the natural hydrologic systems. This will require a substantial increase in eco-hydrological landscape analyses and research.
Finland should improve its recognition of the ecosystem services that pristine mires provide, along with their consequent economic value. These include biodiversity conservation, water regulation, carbon storage, the provision of palaeo-ecological archives, opportunities to experience wilderness, preservation of human heritage and the satisfaction of recreational needs, such as wild berry collection. By continuous neglect of these services, Finland progressively destroys the integrity of its country. Many of these values are irreversibly destroyed by peatland drainage, cannot be restored and often cannot be substituted. Conserving intact mires is therefore much more cost-effective than restoration of drained mires.
The IMCG noted that current Finnish environmental legislation does not give sufficient emphasis to protection of mires.
We request Finland to modernize and update its environmental legislation so that the full range of peatland ecosystem services will be duly considered in decision making.
Mire and peatland destruction in Finland is facilitated by the misleading argument of peat being a “(slowly) renewable biofuel”. There is no scientific basis to the claim that burning peat contributes any less to climate change than other fossil fuels. Peat grows so slowly that its rate of renewal is – like that of coal and lignite – irrelevant for society.
Equally wrong is the argument of sustainable peat mining by pointing at accumulation elsewhere. Peat accumulation elsewhere cannot compensate for the losses of ecosystem destruction at a valuable site.
We ask Finland to take note of the statement of the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) to the IMCG (April 13, 2005): “We share your concern about the preservation of peatlands. Not only are they not renewable on a societal time scale; their low rate of renewal is also too slow to be relevant for the objective of climate change mitigation. As a matter of general policy, we therefore do not endorse peat as a renewable energy resource. … We will pay heed that in the further development of this project and the GEF renewables portfolio, peat will be excluded from the support of the GEF. Unfortunately, however, this might not influence the definitions and terminology that governments are using for their national legislation, as we are a country driven mechanism, but it will ensure that GEF resources are not used for promoting peat.”
The IMCG requests the Finnish government to refrain from using (and internationally promoting) misleading labels such as “slowly renewable biofuel” as it obstructs a factual exchange of information and prevents wise decision making.
The IMCG urges Finland to rapidly develop and implement an energy strategy - based on truly sustainable resources - that includes:
- phasing-out of fuel peat mining by the year 2025
- the prevention of peat mining in areas that have a high conservation value
- an immediate end to peat mining in those areas
- a restriction of the remaining peat mining activities solely to deposits that had already lost their ecological values before 1990, such as old forestry drainage sites or abandoned agricultural fields on peat soil.

The 2006 IMCG field symposium in Finland will stimulate further international interest in research, education and conservation management of this globally important resource. The IMCG feels privileged to have had the opportunity to see such a historically important area for peatland research and thanks the Finnish Environment administration and the symposium organizers for their much-valued support. The IMCG would like to work with the Finnish Government to ensure that this resource is conserved for future generations.

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