During the 11th IMCG biennial meeting in Paarl (Western Cape Province) South Africa, a total of 8 IMCG resolutions were adopted. The resolutions were published in the IMCG newsletter 3 & 4 2004.
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 willingly places its advice and expertise at the disposal of any government seeking to establish or maintain mire conservation programmes.
The IMCG held its 11th biennial General Assembly in Paarl, South Africa, in September 2004. IMCG was informed about the effort the Austrian Federal Forests have made in protecting and restoring mires. The protection of all mires owned by the Company in 1993, the restoration of more than 20 sites and the establishment of six additional Ramsar sites in Austria dedicated to mires, are regarded as an outstanding example of mire protection in an international context. IMCG likes to use the opportunity to thank the Austrian Federal Forests for this important contribution to international mire conservation.
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. In its Biennual General Assembly meeting in Paarl (South Africa, September, 26, 2004) the following resolution was adopted.
The Chinese Ramsar Convention Implementation Office (State Forestry Administration), jointly working with the National Commission of Development and Reform, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Land Resources, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Water Resources, the Ministry of Construction, the State Environment Protection Administration, and the State Oceanic Administration has recently adopted an ambitious National Wetland Conservation Programme for China for the period 2002-2030. Targets for the near future (before 2010) include
Peatlands in China are highly threatened ecosystems. Major concentrations of peatlands are found in Northeast China (Dongbei) and on the Tibetan plateau. In these areas the large majority of peatlands is used for arable agriculture respectively intensive grazing. Recent estimates indicate that possibly less than 25 % of the original area of peatlands in China has remained as undisturbed, actively peat accumulating wetlands (mires). Large areas of drained peatlands in agricultural use have lost their important natural functions for long-term Carbon storage, regional water regulation, and biodiversity conservation, and are currently subject to severe peat oxidation and erosion.
The International Mire Conservation Group urges the central Government of China and the provincial administrations, following the National Wetland Conservation Programme and Ramsar CoP8 Resolution VIII.17,
To encourage international cooperation on research and technology transfer for peatland conservation and wise use. The International Mire Conservation Group will be pleased to assist in these important tasks by contributing its expertise and providing training facilities in peatland ecology, conservation, management, and wise use (e.g. to the Mire and Peat Institute of the Northeast Normal University in Changchun) and to support community participation, education, and public awareness raising.
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 willingly places its advice and expertise at the disposal of any government seeking to establish or maintain mire conservation programmes.
The Czech Republic´s mires, as water-driven ecosystems, have been developing for the last 13,000 years; their organic deposits store and provide valuable scientific information about the long-term Holocene landscape history of Central Europe. They occupy less than 0.3 % of the country´s area, but include a broad variety of fen and bog habitats whose ecologic specificity and biotic uniqueness is irreplaceable in the sustainable development of European biodiversity. The international network of the Ramsar Sites includes several locations of well preserved Czech peatlands, but their regional testimony would be significantly enhanced by registration of a cluster of bogs situated in the Ore Mountains along the Czech-German boundary. Though protected by preliminary legislation, these outstanding mires called "Rašelinište Krušnohorí" deserve further acknowledgement at national level and subsequent recognition as a Ramsar Site. IMCG recommends rapid processing of the proposal and adoption of the Rašelinište Krušnohorí into the Ramsar Sites network.
The area of peatlands in Czechia has been substantially reduced in recent decades, and their protection by governmental authorities has been recognized as an urgent need by the Laws on Nature Protection No.128/1992 Sb. and No.168/2004 Sb. Satisfactory implementation of these laws, however, is hampered by a conflict with the Law No.61/1956 Sb. on peat extraction. This allows utilization of pristine peatlands and beginning of new extraction action where irreversible damage to natural function of peatland ecosystems is irresistible. Therefore a strong mechanism ensuring the compatibility of the above laws is needed. IMCG recommends retraction of the Law of 1956 and development of adequate programmes of expert evaluation, monitoring and conservation of mires within the newly declared EU sites of Natura 2000, and adoption of conservation measures covering the majority of minor peatlands distributed in humid mountains and waterlogged floodplains.
Conservation practice of mires, listed within the current network of Czech nature reserves is unilaterally focussed at the maintenance of species diversity of rare plants and animals. Unfortunately, overall peatland ecosystems´ integrity is damaged by large-scale drainage carried out by foresters and farmers, both within the area of particular wetlands and in their broad surroundings. Disrupted hydrological regime resulted necessarily in successive desiccation, loss of entire bog and fen communities, and landscape deterioration. Restoration of water regime is an urgent need for most peatlands in the Czech Republic and IMCG recommends implementation of appropriate programmes and responsible activities.
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. In its Biennual General Assembly meeting in Paarl (South Africa, September, 26, 2004) the following resolution was adopted.
The rising levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are changing the climate. The problem is caused by the mobilisation of long-term stored Carbon through the burning of fossil fuels and the destruction/reduction of the Earth's biomass (forests).To reduce the greenhouse gas emissions, society aims at replacing fossil fuels with renewable alternatives.
The IMCG has noted with concern that peat is being increasingly promoted as a renewable fuel. This has already resulted in
These claims of renewability lack a scientific foundation and are based on suggestive use of terms and false arguments.
With terms like "biomass fuel" (biofuel, biological fuel) the peat lobby aims to verbally disconnect peat from other fossil fuels and associate it with short rotation energy crops like straw and reeds. The prefix "bio-" means "associated with life." Indeed peat is "associated with life" as it stems from living organisms. But all carbon-based fossil fuels are "associated with life" in that sense. In science, biomass is defined as the mass of living (bios = life) organisms or "living weight" (Odum 1971). Fuel peat is no biomass, as the peat is generally derived from plants that died thousands of years ago.
Another suggestive claim is the renewability of peat. Indeed is peat renewable: it is still being formed at present, like it has been formed since hundreds of millions of years. But this does not distinguish peat from other fossil fuels, as also lignite and coal deposits are still formed today.
Not the renewability (i.e. the fact that they can renew) is relevant from a climate point of view but the rate of renewal (i.e. the time period required for their formation). Burning coal means releasing carbon that has not been part of the atmo- and biosphere for millions of years. Peat burned for fuel is thousands of years old. For coal and peat the rate of renewal is so small that their renewability is irrelevant for society. Renewable with respect to the greenhouse effect means the use of energy sources that replenish as quickly as they are used up (= short rotation).
Furthermore, the fact that a type of fuel is renewable does not mean that it is actually renewed. If the fuel is not given opportunity to renew, the use of a "renewable" fuel contributes as much to the greenhouse effect as any non-renewable fuel.
Erroneously it is often claimed that after a peatland has been exploited, peat accumulation will re-start and greenhouse gases will be stored again. This may indeed be the case but the rates involved are only a fraction of those emitted by burning thick layers of peat.
The most common argument used to defend the renewability of peat fuel is that less peat is extracted than is annually accumulating. This argument is false for a range of reasons:
Peat combustion is not a climate neutral activity. There may be honest reasons to locally - and with due observation of the many other values of peatlands -, use peat for fuel, but these reasons do not include renewability.
International conventions increasingly acknowledge the globally important carbon storage and sequestration function of peatlands (Ramsar Convention November 2002, Convention on Biodiversity February 2004). We urge the bodies addressed to correct the contradictions and to prevent an expansion of peat combustion for its "renewability".
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 willingly places its advice and expertise at the disposal of any government seeking to establish or maintain mire conservation programmes.
In Germany most of the bog-landscapes are situated in the federal state of Lower Saxony (Northwest Germany). This state acknowledges its high responsibility for mire protection and has therefore in 1981 adopted a Mire Conservation Programme. Lower Saxony has since gained international respect for its consequent legal protection of complete peatland complexes, including rewetted areas, peat mining areas, and nature-like bog-remnants.
The Esterweger Dose is the largest bog complex in Lower Saxony. It is well known for its tragic history in the 1930s and 1940s when the nazi-regime established a concentration camp in the nearby Esterwegen. The area is a classical site of mire study as it was the last extensive near-natural bog site of Northern Germany and a nature reserve since 1937. The largely state-owned area was, however, sacrificed to peat extraction at the end of the 1950's. The last near-natural parts were destroyed in the 1980s.
But still this complex has an enormous importance for mire conservation because of its potential to re-establish bog-like conditions over huge areas. The Esterweger Dose is currently the largest bog restoration area of West and Central Europe, with already 2000 ha being rewetted. The licenses for peat extraction prescribe "bog restoration "as after use. Parts of the Esterweger Dose are listed for Natura 2000 as part of the FFH-Programme of the European Union. Furthermore the whole area is listed in Natura 2000 as an Important Bird Area. Its listing in the European Natura 2000 network implies the obligation to provide the essential legal protection to the area.
After the last elections in Lower Saxony in 2003, however, the new Government has stopped the -almost completed - process of designating the Esterweger Dose as a nature reserve. Reacting on lobby from the peat industry, the new Minister of Environment has decided not to designate those parts of the Esterweger Dose that are still used for peat extraction.
This may severely hamper the long-term integrated development of the area as one of the most extensive and most promising bog restoration sites of West and Central Europe. The IMCG recalls that Lower Saxony sold another large and unprotected bog area as a trainingcentre to Mercedes in 1992
Therefore the IMCG requests the Minister of Environment of Lower Saxony to proceed without delay with the designation of the total Esterweger Dose as a nature reserve and in this way complete the consequent implementation of the Mire Conservation Programme of 1981.
Furthermore the IMCG request the Minister of Environment of the Federal Republic of Germany, who is responsible for the German part of the Natura 2000 - network, to support the conservation of the Esterweger Dose mire complex
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 willingly places its advice and expertise at the disposal of any government seeking to establish or maintain mire conservation programmes.
The IMCG held its 11th biennial General Assembly in Paarl, South Africa in September 2004. At that Assembly the following resolution was adopted with respect to the current provision for conservation of mires in Latvia.
We appreciate the ongoing activities to protect the mires of Latvia in the face of increasing pressure for their utilization in the whole Baltic region. The 8th field symposium and General Assembly of the IMCG was held in Latvia in 1998, and we had the pleasure of visiting many Latvian mire sites. In 2003, the Mire Habitat Management Plan was prepared that provides an overview on Latvian mires, their values, and the management actions necessary for their conservation.
Currently 5 projects under the European Commission financed LIFE-Nature programme include actions related to mire conservation and management. These projects include the restoration of raised bog hydrology with which Latvia can develop expertise and methodology in the restoration of raised bog ecosystems. We welcome the fact that the Ministry of Environment of Latvia supports these projects and trust that this support will continue
However, the international mire conservation community notes the following additional needs to ensure the conservation of mire biodiversity:
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 willingly places its advice and expertise at the disposal of any government seeking to establish or maintain mire conservation programmes.
One of the most valuable wetlands in Poland is the mire in the Rospuda river valley in the Augustów Forest. The Rospuda valley contains fens with totally undisturbed water conditions, which results in an existence of huge areas of open wetlands. The sedge-moss plant communities, covering over 100 ha are the most valuable habitat of the Rospuda valley. The vastness of the valley and the undisturbed water relations belong to the most precious qualities of this site. Its hydrological system bearing no signs of human disturbance guarantees the stable existence of unique habitats together with the plants and animals relying on them. Moreover, the valley is characterized by the undisturbed landscape conditions and vegetation zonation.
The Rospuda valley should be regarded as a unique wetland complex of European importance. Its conservation needs are backed up by several international conventions ratified by Poland, in particular the Ramsar Convention (1987) and the EU Habitat Directive (1992). Many of the vegetation types occurring in the valley are habitats included in Annex I of the EU Habitats Directive, whose preservation is obligatory to the EU Member States. The Rospuda river valley deserves to be protected as a Natura 2000 site. Among vascular plants occurring in the valley 35 are legally protected, 14 species are noted in the Polish Red Data Book of Plants and 23 in the Polish "red list". Four species of plants are protected by the EU Habitats Directive. Moreover, the Rospuda valley is the only site in Poland where Musk Orchid Herminium monorchis occurs.
Although one of the most valuable mire complexes in Poland, the Rospuda valley has not received any important conservation status yet. The unique untransformed mire complex lying in the southern part of the valley is gravely threatened by irreversible destruction through plans to build the by-pass road of Augustów across it. Hydrological changes, which are unavoidable when a highway is built, will affect habitat conditions that would result in destroying vulnerable fen vegetation. Moreover, the road would cause landscape fragmentation, which is one of the major threats to endangered species.
Therefore, the IMCG requests the Prime Minister of Poland to show a political will to preserve the unique Rospuda valley as a national nature heritage and an important Polish contribution to United Europe.
Furthermore, the IMCG requests the Minister of Infrastructure of Poland to make a real effort and consider changing the decision concerning the route of the by-pass road of Augustów, irrespective of the costs connected with preparing the suitable documentation and purchasing the land. The IMCG suggests to construct the by-pass so far away that it does not harm the unique untransformed mires lying in the southern part of the valley.
Last but not least, the IMCG requests the Minister of Environment of Poland to support the conservation of the Rospuda valley and to approve the Rospuda valley as a Natura 2000 site.
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 willingly places its advice and expertise at the disposal of any government seeking to establish or maintain mire conservation programmes.
The IMCG held its 11th biennial General Assembly in Paarl, South Africa, in September 2004. At that Assembly the following resolution was adopted with respect to the current provision for mire conservation in South Africa.
The IMCG notes with approval the developments in South Africa since the IMCG adopted the first resolution on South African peatlands (Quebec, August 2000):
However, IMCG notes that there are 5 problems related to the protection of mires that require urgent attention:
Peatlands, like most wetlands, are under severe pressure internationally and urgently require additional protection (cf. Ramsar Resolution 8-17). The IMCG is willing to make its expertise available to the South African government to assist in these matters.
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