Global Peatlands Initiative puts overlooked wetlands at the centre of climate action
- Editorial Team SDG15
- Jun 6
- 5 min read
Published on 6 June 2026 at 06:23 GMT
By Editorial Team SDG15
Global Peatlands Initiative has emerged as a rare international effort focused on one of the climate system’s least visible but most consequential landscapes: peatlands, the waterlogged wetlands that store vast quantities of carbon while supporting biodiversity, water security and rural livelihoods. Formed at the UNFCCC COP in Marrakech in 2016, the initiative brings together experts, governments and institutions to protect and restore the world’s largest terrestrial organic carbon stock before damage turns it into a source of greenhouse gas emissions.
The initiative’s central argument is straightforward but politically difficult. Peatlands occupy a relatively small share of the planet’s land surface, yet hold a disproportionately large amount of soil carbon accumulated over centuries or millennia. When they remain wet and intact, they function as long-term carbon stores. When drained for agriculture, forestry, mining, infrastructure or urban expansion, they can release carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, while becoming more vulnerable to fire, land subsidence and biodiversity loss.
The Global Peatlands Initiative is not a conventional conservation charity. It is a multi-stakeholder platform linked to the United Nations Environment Programme, designed to translate peatland science into policy, finance and practical land management. Its work has focused on improving peatland mapping, supporting national strategies, sharing technical knowledge and encouraging governments to integrate peatland conservation into climate and biodiversity commitments.
That role matters because peatlands have long sat at the margins of environmental policy. Forests, oceans and renewable energy dominate climate debates, while peatlands are often treated as marginal, muddy or economically unproductive land. In practice, these ecosystems regulate water flows, reduce flood risk, support fisheries and farming systems, and provide habitat for specialised species. Their degradation can impose costs far beyond the drained site itself, including haze from fires, damaged public health, lost livelihoods and long-term climate impacts.
The initiative’s relevance is especially clear in tropical peatland countries such as Indonesia, Peru, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of Congo, where large peat deposits intersect with pressures for land conversion, commodity production and infrastructure development. In these regions, protecting peatlands is not only a technical environmental task. It raises questions about land rights, rural poverty, food systems, enforcement capacity, international finance and the balance between national development priorities and global climate obligations.
The public-interest case for peatland restoration is strongest where damage has already begun. Rewetting drained peatlands can reduce emissions and lower fire risk, but it can also disrupt existing land uses if not carefully managed. Communities that depend on drained peat soils for farming may face economic uncertainty if restoration policies are imposed without credible alternatives. The challenge for the Global Peatlands Initiative is therefore not simply to persuade governments that peatlands matter, but to support approaches that are socially workable as well as scientifically sound.
This is where the initiative’s wider network becomes important. Wetlands International, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the Greifswald Mire Centre and the Convention on Wetlands are among the organisations and institutions active in the same policy space. Together, they bring expertise in wetland protection, land-use planning, agriculture, hydrology and international environmental agreements. Their involvement reflects a growing recognition that peatlands cannot be protected by climate ministries alone. They sit at the intersection of farming, forestry, water management, Indigenous stewardship, biodiversity law and climate finance.
The link to the Sustainable Development Goals is direct, but it should not be overstated as a branding exercise. Peatland protection is closely connected to SDG 13 (climate action) because intact peatlands keep carbon in the ground. It also relates to SDG 6 (clean water and sanitation) where peatlands help regulate water systems, and to SDG 15 (life on land) through habitat conservation. In areas affected by smoke from peat fires, there is also a practical connection to SDG 3 (good health and well-being). These links matter because they show how peatlands cut across policy silos that are often managed separately.
The political difficulty lies in the fact that peatland protection often asks governments to value avoided damage. Carbon that is not emitted, fires that do not happen and floods that are less severe can be hard to communicate to electorates and finance ministries. Development projects, by contrast, often promise immediate jobs, revenue and visible infrastructure. The Global Peatlands Initiative operates in that tension, trying to make the case that prevention is cheaper and more effective than attempting to repair degraded landscapes after the damage has occurred.
There are also scientific and technical barriers. Peatlands are not always well mapped, especially in remote tropical regions. Their depth, carbon density and ecological condition can vary sharply across landscapes. Without credible data, governments struggle to design protection zones, estimate emissions or attract climate finance. One of the initiative’s most important contributions has been to support the evidence base for a more accurate global understanding of peatland distribution, condition and risk.
Yet evidence alone does not guarantee action. Peatland policies can be weakened by unclear land tenure, weak enforcement, competing ministries and commercial pressure from sectors that benefit from drainage. Restoration can be expensive, slow and politically contested. In some places, local communities may distrust conservation projects if they are associated with restrictions rather than rights, livelihoods and participation. A credible global peatlands policy agenda must therefore place community interests and land governance at its centre.
The initiative’s emergence also reflects a wider shift in climate policy towards nature-based solutions, a term that is useful but sometimes vague. Peatlands show both the promise and the limits of that agenda. Protecting intact peatlands is a clear climate priority because lost peat carbon cannot be quickly recovered. But restoration is not a substitute for reducing fossil fuel emissions. It is part of climate action, not an alternative to decarbonisation. A rigorous approach must keep that distinction clear.
The Peatland Breakthrough, developed in alignment with the Global Peatlands Initiative and other partners, has attempted to give the agenda sharper targets and a stronger international profile. Its emphasis on science-based goals, finance and coordinated action reflects an attempt to move peatlands from specialist concern to mainstream climate policy. Whether that succeeds will depend on whether governments, donors and development banks treat peatlands as infrastructure for climate resilience rather than as vacant land awaiting conversion.
For civil society, the issue is also about accountability. Peatlands often overlap with territories used or governed by Indigenous peoples and local communities. Conservation strategies that ignore these rights risk repeating older models of environmental protection that excluded people from the landscapes they had long managed. Conversely, rights-based stewardship can strengthen protection where communities have legal recognition, resources and decision-making power. The Global Peatlands Initiative is most credible when it frames peatlands as lived landscapes, not simply as carbon stores.
The stakes are increasing as global climate targets become harder to meet. Every major source of avoidable emissions now matters, particularly those linked to land-use decisions that can lock in damage for decades. Peatlands are among the few ecosystems where relatively small areas can carry global climate significance. Their protection is not a niche environmental concern, but a test of whether international climate policy can act before degradation becomes irreversible.
The Global Peatlands Initiative has helped make that case in international forums, research networks and national policy discussions. Its continuing challenge is implementation: turning assessments, meetings and partnership language into durable protection on the ground. That means better maps, stronger laws, fairer finance, credible restoration, and serious attention to the people whose livelihoods are bound up with peat landscapes.
In a climate debate often dominated by technology and energy infrastructure, the initiative points to a quieter reality. Some of the world’s most important climate assets are wet, remote and politically neglected. Keeping them intact may be less visible than building new systems, but for the atmosphere, for water security and for communities living with the consequences of land degradation, the difference is practical and immediate.
Further information:
Global Peatlands Initiative, the main international partnership working to conserve, restore and sustainably manage peatlands.
