Wetlands: heroes of climate protection

Peatlands play an important role in climate protection: they cover 3 percent of the earth’s surface worldwide, but bind twice as much carbon as the biomass of all forests. Nevertheless, they are under threat worldwide. With a donation to the Rotary Club of Wangen-Isny-Leutkirch, Mercer is supporting a rewetting project for a raised bog in Germany.

There are around 500 million hectares of moors worldwide. They provide a habitat for specialized species, filter pollutants, protect areas of land from flooding and stop CO2 emissions. Although they only cover 3 percent of the earth’s surface worldwide, they bind twice as much carbon as all the forests on our planet. This makes them an important and valuable component of climate protection that must be preserved. 

Awareness of how important peatlands are for our climate has grown in recent years. This was not always the case. In fact, peatlands have been deliberately drained in order to gain land for settlements or agriculture – especially in densely populated areas. In the European Union, for example, around half of all peatlands have been drained – more than in other regions: Overall, around 10 percent of all peatlands worldwide are drained, and every year around another 500,000 hectares of peatland are destroyed.

Drainage is problematic, among other things, because drained peatlands release the previously stored carbon dioxide (CO2) instead of binding it. The preservation and renaturation of moors is therefore an important lever for climate protection – and can help to achieve the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement to preserve the basis of our existence. In Germany alone, at least 50,000 hectares of moorland would have to be rewetted every year, as well as a further 500,000 hectares in the EU and 2 million hectares worldwide.