The voluntary carbon market for safeguarding and restoring our wetlands

Wetlands International

Published: 2022

Healthy wetlands store vast amounts of carbon in their soils and biomass, but they can become a huge source of emissions upon degradation. Peatlands, although covering only 3% of the world’s terrestrial area are the biggest natural carbon stores, storing twice the amount of carbon present in all forests. Mangroves typically hold five times as much carbon as a similar area of rainforest.  

These habitats are at the centre of the planet’s triple crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss, and land degradation. More than two-thirds of natural wetlands have been lost or degraded, the vast majority of which has taken place over the past century.  

The degradation of wetlands causes unimaginable destruction of biodiversity, as wetlands contain a greater concentration of life than anywhere else. Degraded wetlands fail to sustain essential ecosystem services such as food, freshwater supply, erosion, and flood control, all vital in the context of climate change adaptation. 

Upon degradation, wetlands keep on releasing massive amounts of CO2 alongside CH4 (methane) and N2O (nitrous oxide) from their soils, adding to global warming. No less than five percent of annual global emissions – more than the aviation and shipping sectors combined – come from draining and converting peatlands alone.   

This makes protecting and restoring our wetlands a number one global priority. But we need the funding to do it, now. 

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Landscape GHG Accounting Guidance: Developing Landscape-scale Carbon Projects 

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The role of interaction between river dynamics and the terrestrial ecosystem on the global carbon cycle