NEWSLETTER

issue 2007/2, June 2007

 

 

The International Mire Conservation Group (IMCG) is an international network of specialists having a particular interest in mire and peatland conservation. The network encompasses a wide spectrum of expertise and interests, from research scientists to consultants, government agency specialists to peatland site managers. It operates largely through e-mail and newsletters, and holds regular workshops and symposia. For more information: consult the IMCG Website: http://www.imcg.net

IMCG has a Main Board of currently 15 people from various parts of the world that has to take decisions between congresses. Of these 15 an elected 5 constitute the IMCG Executive Committee that handles day-to-day affairs. The Executive Committee consists of a Chairman (Jennie Whinam), a Secretary General (Hans Joosten), a Treasurer (Philippe Julve), and 2 additional members (Tatiana Minaeva, Piet-Louis Grundling).

Seppo Eurola, Richard Lindsay, Viktor Masing (†), Rauno Ruuhijärvi, Hugo Sjörs, Michael Steiner and Tatiana Yurkovskaya have been awarded honorary membership of IMCG.

Editorial

This special issue on peat, peatlands, and energy started as a short article for the last Newsletter but got entirely out of hand. The letter from the International Peat Society to the European Commission on peat renewability challenged us to explain why many of IPS’s arguments are irrelevant or incorrect. As it is generally more demanding to refute than it is to utter claims, the paper grew in length to become a wide overview of contra-arguments. We hope that this will stimulate the factual discussion between IPS and IMCG during the joint meeting in Sweden at the end of June.

As the peat industry and its allies increasingly dance on the field of climate change policy, we thought it useful to include an overview on how peat and peatlands are treated in the UN Framework Convention and its Kyoto Protocol. Some insight in this difficult and confusing field may reveal the deeper tactics behind the attempts to re-classifying and re-naming peat.

Energy politics not only threatens peatlands by attempting to increase peat combustion as an alleged ‘clean’ source of energy, also the ‘carrier function’ of the often thinly populated peatlands attracts the attention of the energy industry. This Newsletter includes the first information on the IMCG symposium “Wind Farms on Peatland” to be held in Santiago de Compostela (Spain), 27–30 April 2008.

As peatlands, energy, and climate change will remain a coherent subject area for years to come, Olivia Bragg presents a proposal for an EU COST Action.

IMCG – Bundled energy for peatland conservation!

Deadline for the next Newsletter: 15 July 2008.

For information, address changes or other things, contact us at the IMCG Secretariat. In the meantime, keep an eye on the continuously refreshed and refreshing IMCG web-site: http://www.imcg.net

John Couwenberg & Hans Joosten, The IMCG Secretariat
Institute of Botany and Landscape Ecology, Grimmerstr. 88, D-17487 Greifswald (Germany)
fax: +49 3834 864114; e-mail: joosten@uni-greifswald.de

Contents:

Editorial.............................................................................................................................................................................................. 1

A note from the Chair...................................................................................................................................................................... 2

Why burning peat is bad for the climate – An executive summary.......................................................................................... 3

The International Peat Society: fossil or renewable?.................................................................................................................. 4

Peatlands; Peat, UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol.................................................................................................................. 20

The CO2 emission factor of peat fuel........................................................................................................................................... 24

Peatlands, Energy and Climate Change IMCG Symposium on Windfarms on peatland..................................................... 25

IPCC focuses in on peat................................................................................................................................................................ 26

Peatlands, Energy and Climate Change Proposal for an EU COST Action........................................................................... 27

Regional News................................................................................................................................................................................ 27

IMCG Main Board.......................................................................................................................................................................... 29

UPCOMING EVENTS.................................................................................................................................................................... 30