A recent case study conducted in Lithuania by the EU-funded WET HORIZONS project calculated the socioeconomic benefits of rewetting peatlands. The findings suggest that sustainable land practices can lead to significant savings by improving carbon storage and water management.
Wetlands are connected to human wellbeing. Restoring wetlands contributes to human’s health and integrity. On World Wetlands Day 2024, we celebrate this connection. We emphasise the need to restore wetlands and regain their benefits for humanity.
by Rebecca Pool
Bog bodies and flood risks: Here’s what Europeans are getting wrong on wetlands.
There are many common misconceptions about wetlands. Our experts tackle a handful of them and answer questions about sinking in wetlands, the current state of these areas, and if they pose flood risks.
by ESCI
With wellies and waterproof clothing, Claudia Nielsen spent time splodging through the Bois-des-Bel peatlands earlier this year. The peatlands, located in Quebec, Canada, had been restored, with conservations working on them for 23 years. Nielsen was there to learn more about the restoration in her capacity as part of the coordination team of the EU project Wet Horizons – which aims to restore wetlands in Europe.
by Fred Pearce
No natural ecosystems – not even rainforests – store as much carbon as the world’s peat bogs. Once considered watery wastelands, and widely drained for agriculture, their restoration is now in the frontline of the fight against climate change and therefore the focus of important research.
Water is essential for life, and clean water is the basis for all human activity. Having clean water is something that we should not take for granted: many factors are posing the European water reservoirs at risk such as pollution, bad water management, and climate change. From 20th to 24th August, the World Water Week … Read more
By Fred Pearce
Europe’s many degraded wet places are leaking carbon dioxide into the atmosphere on a huge scale. If Europe’s climate targets are to be met, then the continent’s forgotten mires and bogs, marshes and fens, must be restored, say scientists engaged in WET HORIZONS.
by Fred Pearce
From the Balmoral royal estate in the Scottish highlands to bogs of the Biebrza valley in northeast Poland, and from the frozen peatlands of northern Finland to the Rhine delta in the Netherlands, many of Europe’s degraded wet places are leaking carbon dioxide into the atmosphere on a huge scale. We must call a halt.
Reading the 2022 report by the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) it becomes increasingly clear: the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degree Celsius cannot be achieved by only reducing carbon levels. Other mitigation methods such as carbon capture and storage are necessary to realistically reach our climate change goals.