The world's peatlands hold twice as much carbon as all its forests, but exploitation has destroyed a fifth of them. Now scientists are using pioneering moss transplants and flooding to restore their natural function
. Vast tracts of peatland were drained and trees planted, blanketing the swampy ground that covers nearly a third of the country. “These sites are incredibly carbon rich and often have high levels of biodiversity, but they’re not always the best for growing trees,” says. Unfortunately, by the time this became clear about half of Finland’s peatland had been degraded.
Environmentally, this posed a serious problem. Without enough water, layers of peat were exposed and easily eroded, leaching carbon dioxide into the air and adding to global warming. Metsähallitus, the group that manages Finland’s state-owned forests, realised that planting trees in such places was no longer an option. Today, it is committed to a different goal: restoration.
In the far north-west of Scotland, conservationists block drainage channels to restore a bog’s hydrologyFinland isn’t alone. Worldwide, about a fifth of peatlands have been drained, burned or otherwise damaged to make way for forests, farms and infrastructure, or extracted as …App + Web
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