Austin, Kemen G., Elsen, Paul R., Honorio Coronado, Euridice N., Degemmis, Alfred, Gallego-Sala, Angela V., Harris, Lorna, Kretser, Heidi E., Melton, Joe R., Murdiyarso, Daniel, Sasmito, Sigit D., Swails, Erin, Wijaya, Arief, Winton, R. Scott, and Zarin, Dan (2025) Mismatch Between Global Importance of Peatlands and the Extent of Their Protection. Conservation Letters, 18 (1). e13080.

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Abstract

Global peatlands store more carbon than all the world's forests biomass on just 3% of the planet's land surface. Failure to address mounting threats to peatland ecosystems will jeopardize critical climate targets and exacerbate biodiversity loss. Our analysis reveals that 17% of peatlands are protected globally—substantially less than many other high-value ecosystems. Just 11% percent of boreal and 27% of temperate and tropical peatlands are protected, while Indigenous peoples' lands encompass at least another one-quarter of peatlands globally. Peatlands in protected areas and Indigenous peoples' lands generally face lower human pressure than outside those areas. Yet, almost half of temperate and tropical peatlands in protected areas still experience medium to high human pressure. Country submissions of Nationally Determined Contributions under the Paris Agreement and National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plans under the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework could help catalyze actions and secure funding for peatland conservation, including support for the Indigenous stewardship that is critical to protect many of the world's highest priority peatland areas.

Item ID:	84705
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	1755-263X
Keywords:	area-based conservation; climate; peat; peatlands; protected areas; rights–based conservation
Copyright Information:	© 2025 The Author(s). Conservation Letters published by Wiley Periodicals LLC. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
Date Deposited:	19 Feb 2025 02:10
FoR Codes:	41 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES > 4104 Environmental management > 410401 Conservation and biodiversity @ 100%
SEO Codes:	19 ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY, CLIMATE CHANGE AND NATURAL HAZARDS > 1902 Environmental policy, legislation and standards > 190207 Land policy @ 100%
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