Key Recommendations
This assessment calls for the following actions to be taken by governments and other interested or affected parties as they develop and implement national peatlands policies, strategies and action plans:
• Develop and maintain data systems on peatland extent, condition and uses, to inform policy planning and regulations. National Wetland Inventories prepared by parties to the Convention on Wetlands are a good starting point for such systems.
• Expand protected area systems to include peatlands using evidence on the location and conservation status of peatlands provided in this assessment.
• Place buffer zones around peatlands so that encroaching threats can be averted in collaboration with local communities before they result in damage.
• Strengthen regulations to prevent or halt harmful operations like peatland drainage for agriculture and forestry, and inadvertent loss of peatlands for other uses (like minerals, oil and peat extraction).
• Initiate medium-term plans for phasing-out harmful operations that are already taking place and establish licenses that require more sustainable practices and peatland restoration obligations for the transition period.
• Form fair, transparent gender-responsive governance systems that cross sectors and empower stewardship by Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities through devolved decision-making such as indigenous co-management and community-led conservation.
• Create subsidies and fiscal mechanisms that incentivize practices that support the protection, restoration and sustainable management of peatlands.
• Eliminate perverse incentives and disincentivize activities that are driving peatland degradation and conversion.
• Use blended finance to combine public and private sector funding to scale-up the conservation, restoration and sustainable management of peatlands. Carbon and other ecosystem market mechanisms as well as a range of green finance instruments have the potential to provide returns to investors and benefits to local populations if proper safeguards are in place.
• Establish robust monitoring frameworks to ensure action for peatland conservation, restoration and sustainable management is tracked. It must then be reported on in line with national and international reporting obligations and used to inform future management.
• Support collaboration and engage in international networks and initiatives that work to advance inter-sectoral decision-making and interdisciplinary research on peatlands.