Why Peatlands
There is no climate justice without peatland justice
While peatland degradation propels the climate crisis, biodiversity loss and the loss of cultural heritage, peatland preservation has the power to restore socio-ecological relations.
Learning ABOUT the PEATLAND
Peatlands are landscapes where the ground is peat; a soft and wet type of soil composed of dead plants. Peat can be preserved for thousands of years, under the condition that it stays wet. Peat formation occurs through an accumulation of dead plants falling into still water. Degradation processes require oxygen, so when the water body becomes depleted of oxygen, what remains is a wet mush of partially decomposed plants. This foundation is a unique home for plants that like to have their feet wet and thrive in oxygen poor conditions. As this top layer of plants cycles through life and death, the peat is built in a slow and layering fashion. The ecosystem formed in, on top of and around this soil is what we call a peatland.
30%
Of all terrestrial carbon
Due to the build-up of organic matter, peatlands hold 30% of all terrestrial carbon in their soils. This significant storage capacity makes peatlands crucial for maintaining global carbon balance.
3%
Of the world’s land surface
Even though peatlands only cover 3% of the world’s land surface, their impact on carbon storage is enormous. When intact, they continuously accumulate carbon, acting as a sacred storage system.
5%
Of annual human co2 emissions
However, when peatlands are disturbed—whether through drainage, extraction, or burning—their stored carbon is released into the atmosphere as CO2, contributing to global heating. This degradation currently accounts for 5% of annual human-created CO2 emissions.
PEAT
SOIL PROFILE
types of peatlands
Under the peatland umbrella, there is a rich diversity of landscapes still. They can be classified based on their water source and pH, where bogs are mostly rainwater fed and acidic, while fens are mostly groundwater fed and more neutral in pH. However, in reality all peatlands are located somewhere on the continuum of these classifiers. Peatlands are queer ecosystems, difficult to put in a box and highly shaped by local factors. This diversity of peatlands is mirrored in the abundance of words in various languages to describe peatlands, each of them just as difficult to translate as the next one. Every peatland is just what it is: its own peatland to be met with fresh awe and curiosity.
peatland distribution around the world:
Source: wedocs.unep.org
peatlands’ gifts
Although the beauty of peatlands is hidden with treacherous soils and families of mosquitos, those who keep looking will see their richness. Silently, peatlands generously host a variety of highly adapted species such as bog cotton, cloudberry bushes and carnivorous sundews. Native and migratory birds find safe breeding spots in their puddle-surrounded bushes. Peatlands provide inspiration for folklore and cultural practices through their mystical image. They suck carbon out of the atmosphere and keep it safely hidden away. They help us make sense of the world, by symbolising patterns of destruction and exploitation as well as embodying unconventional beauty and slow, silent power.
Learning through the PEATLAND
Exploitation and destruction is widespread in our society and peatlands are no exception to this pattern. Peatlands can serve as a lens, a case study, through which our understanding of these patterns can deepen. They are more than mere ecosystems; they are living, breathing archives of our collective actions and their consequences. By studying the driving forces and impacts of destructive practices on peatlands, we gain insights into broadly shared practices of resource exploitation, land grabbing, and environmental injustice. It is through understanding and addressing these interconnected challenges that we can work towards a world where socio-ecological justices are driving forces of actions, on peatlands and beyond.
photo credits: Andrejs Strokins
Learning FROM the PEATLAND
Peatlands defy and resist widespread anthropogenic beliefs. When observing a peatland closely, the neural patterns in our mind are pushed to rewire themselves. Away from binarity, linearity and mechanistic analyses, towards holding complexity, liminality and transitionality. To fully see a peatland means to accept the unknown and incomprehensible. It is a deeply humbling experience. Peatlands show us that the world is not black and white, but that there is a whole universe that exists in the grey space between life and death, between then and now, between solid and liquid, between the material and the spiritual. They help us come to terms with the nuance, confusions and grievances of life. Peatlands refuse to be boxed in, to be defined by a singular definition. They are to be understood in their own context, to be related to at an individual level. Peatlands are inherently in transition, queer bodies continuously cycling through life and death, each dependent on the other. They hold a piece of our future to be studied in the present.
photo credits: Andrejs Strokins
Peatland Folklore
We are not the first to learn from the peatland. Communities worldwide boast a rich history of peat-inspired folklore. Enigmatic messages from the peat to its people touch on themes of death, uncertainty, and liminality. Peatlands are landscapes of mystery, demanding respect and caution. They are akin to witches; one should not approach too closely, for the nature of their wisdom and power may be unknown. Yet for those who dare to keep looking and trust in the goodness of the peat, a world of soft abundance reveals itself.
Peatlands carry and create folklore that remains close to us to this day in the form of stories, cryptids and mysteries. Without the magic of peat, we wouldn’t have a lot of folk symbols that are cultural staples for different cultures, like will-o-wisps, the Näkki, Jack-o-lanterns or bunyips. Peatlands also get a mention in popular modern fiction, like the Dead Marshes in the Lord of the Rings series (in fact, Tolkien’s local bog was a site of much inspiration for the series). The impact of the destruction of peatlands isn’t only bad for climate change and biodiversity loss; it means the loss of these diverse and wonderful stories.
Why we should all be obsessed with Peatlands
