Peatland Protection Equals Efficient Climate Protection

Zurich-Reckenholz, 07. Is there a cost-efficient way to curb climate stress caused by land use? Globally, peatlands store twenty per cent of all the carbon lying untapped in the soil - despite the fact that they account for less than three per cent of the Earth's land mass. New findings from Agroscope show that peatland protection is a highly efficient climate-protection measure. These - Even in Switzerland, the small area of organic soils still remaining (28,000 ha) stores as much carbon as all of the country's mineral arable soils combined (approx. 270,000 ha). Peatland Protection or Change in Management The ability of peatlands to serve as carbon sinks disappears quickly when they are used as farmland. Agroscope researchers estimate that worldwide, the agricultural use of organic soils leads to greenhouse gas emissions representing around 5% of all anthropogenic emissions. By protecting all peatlands worldwide, more future greenhouse gas emissions could be avoided than would be possible via additional carbon storage on the rest of the Earth's agricultural land area through improved management.