University of Leicester
Browse

The three-peat challenge: business as usual, responsible agriculture, and conservation and restoration as management trajectories in global peatlands

journal contribution
posted on 2023-12-21, 09:19 authored by NT Girkin, PJ Burgess, L Cole, HV Cooper, E Honorio Coronado, SJ Davidson, J Hannam, J Harris, I Holman, CS McCloskey, MM McKeown, AM Milner, S Page, J Smith, D Young
Peatlands are a globally important carbon store, but peatland ecosystems from high latitudes to the tropics are highly degraded due to increasingly intensive anthropogenic activity, making them significant greenhouse gas (GHG) sources. Peatland restoration and conservation have been proposed as a nature-based solution to climate change, by restoring the function of peatlands as a net carbon sink, but this may have implications for many local communities who rely on income from activities associated with transformed peatlands, particularly those drained for agriculture. However, without changing the way that humans interact with and exploit peatlands in most regions, peatlands will continue to degrade and be lost. We propose that there are ultimately three potential trajectories for peatland management: business as usual, whereby peatland carbon sink capacity continues to be eroded, responsible agricultural management (with the potential to mitigate emissions, but unlikely to restore peatlands as a net carbon sink), and restoration and conservation. We term this the three-peat challenge, and propose it as a means to view the benefits of restoring peatlands for the environment, as well as the implications of such transitions for communities who rely on ecosystem services (particularly provisioning) from degraded peatlands, and the consequences arising from a lack of action. Ultimately, decisions regarding which trajectories peatlands in given localities will follow torequire principles of equitable decision-making, and support to ensure just transitions, particularly for communities who rely on peatland ecosystems to support their livelihoods.

History

Author affiliation

School of Geography, Geology and the Environment, University of Leicester

Version

  • VoR (Version of Record)

Published in

Carbon Management

Volume

14

Issue

1

Publisher

Informa UK Limited

issn

1758-3004

eissn

1758-3012

Copyright date

2023

Available date

2023-12-21

Language

en

Usage metrics

    University of Leicester Publications

    Categories

    No categories selected

    Licence

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC