Background

Peat-forming wetlands, an estimated 60% of all the wetlands distributed globally, occur predominantly in the northern boreal and the tropical zones of the World. These ecosystems are subjected to a series of land use pressures including active forestry development of tropical forest species, agricultural drainage, energy and horticultural uses of peat resources, and flooding for hydro-electric reservoirs. Peatlands are vitally linked to conservation issues such as carbon sequestration affecting global climate change, and provision of key habitat for a diverse range of the World's flora and fauna. They also are the source of a significant portion of the freshwater and many other economic resources vital to human survival. This is particularly important in developing nations. However, peatlands have until recently remained outside the mainstream of most national and international wetland conservation and sustainable wise use initiatives.

In March of 1996, in advance of COP6 of the Ramsar Convention, a series of partner agencies cooperated in the organization of the International Workshop on Global Mire and Peatland Conservation (Rubec 1996). This workshop reviewed and facilitated adoption of a Ramsar COP6 Recommendation on global peatland wise use. One of this recommendation's key points focused on the low number of Ramsar sites featuring peatlands around the World. Peatlands were subsequently recognized as an under-represented wetland type in the global network of Ramsar Wetlands of International Importance.

Since 1996 many new initiatives have come forward to foster wise use of peatland resources. A global partnership of organizations have identified the need for a peatland wise use and conservation action plan, regional guidelines for the management of peatland ecosystems, and cooperation among potential partners.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol are emerging as critical mechanisms to foster wise use of carbon resources and the potential implementation of a global trading mechanism for carbon credits. Peatlands, while the largest component of the World's carbon sink and a valuable economic resource, remain at this time excluded from the international discussions on the Kyoto Protocol. Studies and discussions in many sectors are underway to promote recognition of these peat-forming wetland types as a critical linkage to the economic and environmental issues inherent in the Climate Change Convention. In addition, the potential to promote joint initiatives among the Climate Change, Ramsar and Biological Diversity Conventions is an opportunity that is widely recognized but not yet realized.

Objectives

With these considerations in mind, the organizers of the 13th IUCN Global Biodiversity Forum (GBF13) hosted an international workshop on peatland wise use and management in San José, Costa Rica from May 7-9, 1999. This peatlands workshop was one of six parallel workshops organized through the Forum in advance of COP7 of the Ramsar Convention in San José May 10-18, 1999. The climate change carbon sink issue, conservation of biodiversity, and wise use and management of peatlands formed the major elements of this GBF Workshop.

The three objectives of this workshop were to:

(1) review the status of initiatives promoting cooperation and development of a global peatland wise use and conservation action plan;

(2) foster a partnership to implement such a strategy; and

(3) explore mechanisms to support international cooperation on understanding carbon sinks and the linkages of peatland conservation to the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol under the Framework Convention on Climate Change.

 

This Workshop involved numerous partners including:

(i) IUCN Commission on Ecosystem Management;

(ii) Canadian Wildlife Service and the Biodiversity Convention Office of Environment Canada;

(iii) International Mire Conservation Group;

(iv) Wetlands International , Americas;

(v) International Peat Society; and

(vi) Institute for Wetland Science and Public Policy.

 

Results of Workshop

The workshop involved a series of eight invited presentations over the three day period:

(i) Peatlands and the Carbon Challenge: a Global Climate Change Issue and Opportunity. Dr. James Patterson, Wetlands International and Dr. Jon Kusler, Institute for Wetland Science and Public Policy.

(ii) Legal and Economic Opportunities and Obstacles in the Kyoto Protocol. Mr. John Niles, Centre for Conservation Biology, Stanford University.

(iii) Conserving Peatland Biodiversity. Faizal Parish, Global Environment Network.

(iv) Opportunities for Regional Peatland Management Guidelines and Programs, Lessons Learned from Tropical and Other Peatland Ecosystems. Professor Edward Maltby, Commission on Ecosystem Management, IUCN.

(v) Peatland Restoration: Trends and Research. Mr. Gerry Hood, Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss Association.

(vi) Nakaikemi Marsh: A Japanese Peat Bog Wonderland of Wildlife. Mr. Shin-ichiro Saito. Nakaikemi Marsh Trust.

(vii) Cooperative Ventures and Wise Use Guidelines for Global Peatlands. Dr. Donal Clarke. Bord na Móna, Ireland.

(viii) The Wetland Ecology and Technology Research Network. Dr. Klaus Dierssen, Botanical Institute, Christian Albrechts University, Germany.

(ix) A Global Peatland Action Plan: Outline and Concepts. Mr. Richard Lindsay, International Mire Conservation Group.

 

The meeting included several breakout groups to explore a Global Action Plan for Peatland Wise Use and Management based on concepts developed by partner agencies during the 1996-1999 period. This Action Plan was subsequently presented in its draft form to COP7 of the Ramsar Convention at its meetings in San José, May 10-18, 1999. The participants discussed the potential for implementation of such an Action Plan through a "Global Peatland Partnership" involving the cooperation of partners and the international conventions on Climate Change, Biological Diversity and Wetlands.

The final Plenary Session of this Workshop focused on fast tracking of issues for elements of an Action Plan. It was agreed that:

1. The Action Plan must include a balanced range of activities both from a scientific and practical sustainable use perspective.
2. Demonstration of actions on-the-ground will be one the key measures of success of this initiative.
3. Focusing on awareness and communication actions must not be overwhelmed by the desire for a rigorous scientific or theoretical approach in these actions.
4. Maximizing the involvement of Ramsar Contracting Parties with extensive peatlands, non-government organizations in the environment sector, and resource user industries will be essential to successful implementation of the Action Plan.
5. A structured approach to implementation is necessary.
6. Funding and coordination of this initiative should involve economic drivers such as the Climate Change Convention, the Global Environment Facility and industry. Incentive mechanisms and the User Pay Principle should be incorporated.

 

The Action Plan will be designed to set the process going with COP7 Ramsar Convention endorsement and adoption being seen as a key element in further progress. Proper sequencing and regular reporting on implementation progress must be kept transparent and in the forefront of this initiative.

In order to foster maximizing of involvement, it was agreed that a coordination group will meet in working meetings during the next few months. Part of such meetings will be identification of the range of stakeholders in peatland use and management. The need for a central hub to coordinate actions is seen as essential. Stakeholders would include several categories: specialists and advisors, supporters, consultees, educators, adopters, users, beneficiaries, practitioners, and the Ramsar/Biodiversity/Climate Change Convention Contracting Parties. Tools that are useful to stakeholders and in-country workshops to focus on locally significant management issues are thus needed as actions in this Plan.

Sustainable use issues regarding peatland resources that would be the focus of discussions it was agreed should include: carbon flux management; sustainable peatland forestry; extractive uses such as fish, peat, and flora; non-extractive uses such as ecotourism; water use and management; and networks of conservation sites.

Recommendations

The participants in the GBF13 Workshop on Global Peatlands provided the following recommendations for the consideration at Ramsar COP7 and for those agencies engaged in peatland issues.

1. The Contracting Parties to the COP7 of the Ramsar Convention should adopt the Draft Decision in Conference Document 15.18 regarding a Global Action Plan on Peatland Wise Use and Management recognizing the Plan presented in Annex 1 to Doc. 15.18 is a working draft for refinement and further consultation.

 

2. The partners involved in furthering this Action Plan should consider the following points for inclusion in its text:

• Include a greater focus on-the-ground actions to balance the current activities related to research and cooperation.
• Consider urgently the means for financial support and implementation of demonstration and pilot studies such as through the Clean Development Mechanism of the Climate Change Convention and Global Environment Facility (GEF) for early action on peatland restoration and conservation initiatives to foster carbon sequestration.
• Ensure that a broadly-based partnership supports this Action Plan.
• Implement projects to survey and better manage peatland biodiversity particularly tropical peatland fish, medicinally important flora, forest species, and unusual and threatened mammals, reptiles and birds.

 

3. The global community should proceed with urgency to implement this Action Plan. It should become a priority component of the next iteration of the Ramsar Convention's Strategic Plan and as an urgent element of joint work activities with the Biodiversity Convention and through other ongoing cooperative mechanisms.

 

4. Financial and logistical support for the implementation of goals, strategies and regional guidelines for the wise use and management of peatland resources, to conserve peatland biodiversity, and to maintain peatland functions and integrity are urgently needed in all regions, particularly for tropical and temperate peatland systems.

 

5. Wetlands and peatlands should be included in the ongoing scientific assessments at the national level and through the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Peatlands should be recognized as critically important to negotiations on carbon sinks under the Kyoto Protocol, particularly in agricultural and forested landscapes. The enhancement of peatland sinks and sustainable use of peatland resources such as through avoidance of destructive development impacts and restoration projects should be promoted as attractive tools to engage Non-Annex I countries in the Kyoto Protocol.

 

6. The Ramsar Bureau, the Convention's Scientific and Technical Review Panel (STRP) and the Ramsar Partners should become actively involved in expanding the interaction and influencing of the Climate Change Convention discussions on global carbon sinks to ensure inclusion of wetlands, through Memoranda of Cooperation and ultimately initiatives such as joint projects and work planning.

 

7. A global analysis is urgently needed of wetland sites (particularly the Ramsar Site Network) and the types of wetlands and peatlands vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

 

8. Particular attention is needed to adapt and apply the Ramsar Convention Wise Use Guidelines to peatlands within an ecosystem framework and involving local and indigenous peoples in many regions.

 

9. A wide range of international cooperation is urgently needed to assist Contracting Parties to global environment conventions (Ramsar, Biodiversity, Climate Change) to understand the importance of peatlands through standardization of terminology, approaches to peatland classification and inventory, development of integrated data bases and establishment of centres of excellence.

 

Next Steps

After this Workshop, a fully developed Action Plan will be completed and the implementation of recommended actions will be taken forward for a wide range of on-the-ground projects. A coordination group to promote rapid implementation is being formed by the partner agencies. Progress on this Action Plan will be included in special symposia on peatlands at the Millennium Wetlands Event in Quebec City, Canada in August 2000 and at COP8 of the Ramsar Convention in 2002. A proceedings of this Workshop including the papers presented is under development.

Conclusions

Peatlands remain in the "grey zone" seemingly unattractive to the conservation movement. A Global Action Plan discussed in this workshop is designed to foster awareness of the need to establish wise use and sustainable management of peatlands throughout the World. A Global Peatland Partnership and specific short-term actions are proposed.

Acknowledgements

The following individuals are thanked for their assistance n organizing and leading this workshop: Professor Ed Maltby of the Ecosystem Management Commission of IUCN; Mr. Richard Lindsay of the International Mire Conservation Group; Mr. Raimo Sopo of the International Peat Society for financial and logistical support in the organization of the meeting; Dr. James Patterson for development of the background paper on peatlands and climate change; and Dr. Jean-Yves Pirot and the GBF13 staff supporting this IUCN Forum. Mr. Clayton Rubec of Environment Canada organized and chaired the meeting and facilitated financial support by Environment Canada.

The organizers also specifically thank the speakers for developing their respective presentations. These include Dr. Jon Kusler of the Institute for Wetland Science and Public Policy in the USA; Mr. John Niles of the Centre for Conservation Biology at Stanford University, USA; Mr. Shin-ichiro Saito of the Nakaikemi Marsh Trust, Japan; Professor Edward Maltby of IUCN; Mr. Donal Clarke of Bord na Móna, Ireland; Mr. Klaus Dierssen of the Botanical Institute, Christian Albrechts University, Germany; Mr. Gerry Hood of the Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss Association; and Mr. Richard Lindsay of the International Mire Conservation Group and East London University, United Kingdom.

For further information on this Workshop please contact:
 
Clayton Rubec
Senior Advisor, Habitat Programs and Agreements
Canadian Wildlife Service, Environment Canada
Ottawa, Ontario
Canada K1A 0H3
e-mail: clay.rubec@ec.gc.ca
phone: (819) 953-0485
fax: (819) 994-4445