Reihe: Naturschutz international

Peatlands in Central and Eastern Europe– restoration, carbon trading and sustainable use in the view of climate change

24.10.2010 - 28.10.2010

Background:

Peatlands are important sources or sinks for greenhouse gases, depending on the type of land use. In Central and Eastern Europe, there is a high potential to conserve and restore peatlands for climate protection as well as for biodiversity conservation. In this regard, diverse policies and legal tools are being developed, and numerous projects are being carried out in order to achieve conservation goals and sustainable use of peatlands. Parallel to these developments scientific research on peatlands has also intensified.

Objective:

The aim of the three years workshop series (2008-2010) is to exchange information about peatland research, management policies and their implementation with respect to climate change mitigation, biodiversity conservation and sustainable development in the target region. The scientific and technical requirements of conservation and restoration projects will be discussed using actual projects as case studies, also in regard to carbon trading as a funding source.

The workshops will be used to review the current knowledge of peatland restoration and to analyse the contribution of peatlands to greenhouse gas emissions (incl. methods of assessing storage and release capacities). They will further look into the ways by which the policies are implemented (e.g. carbon trading) and also orient towards the negotiations of a Post-Kyoto protocol. Furthermore, the question will be tackled, how ecological and socio-economic aims can be pursued simultaneously under the paradigm of sustainability in order to develop project strategies that satisfy the needs of biodiversity conservation, climate change mitigation and of local communities.