MAPPING GLOBAL PEATLANDS

Together with Greifswald Mire Centre (GMC), we were the first to map the location and types of global peatlands, starting with Eastern and Western Europe as well as Indonesia in 2000, followed by Malaysia, Brunei, Mongolia, the Tibetan Plateau and Thailand.

Knowledge on the distribution of peatlands across the world is still expanding and in 2017 the Cuvette Central peatlands in the Congo Basin were mapped for the first time. Vast new peat stores have also been discovered in the Amazon and Orinoco river basins, the Sudd and Inner Niger Delta. We recently mapped peatlands in the Nile Basin, unlocking opportunities for their sustainable management and safeguarding.

Information on the location of peatlands is now incorporated into the Global Peatland Database (GPD), a project of the International Mire Conservation Group (IMCG) located and maintained at GMC.