RE3 Symposium: Canada's peatlands as nature-based solutions to climate change

This symposium will introduce Can-Peat: Canada's peatlands as nature-based solutions to climate change. Canadians are stewards of ~25% of the world's peatland C, the protection of which has been recognized internationally, through the UN Environment Program's Global Peatlands Initiative (GPI), as key to climate change mitigation. Recent work on natural climate solutions in Canada indicates that peatland management could provide an average annual greenhouse gas emission reduction of ~10 Mt CO2 in the year 2030. However, uncertainty in this estimate is high (std. dev. ~8 Mt CO2) due to knowledge gaps on the size of the peat C stock, its vulnerability to disturbances, and the response of peatland greenhouse gas exchange to management actions. The goal of this project is to create a Canadian peatland research network, use data compilation and modelling to reduce uncertainty in greenhouse gas emission reductions from peatland management actions, and evaluate policy instruments to support their implementation. Speakers in the symposium will serve as an introduction to the Can-Peat project covering important topics such as meaningful Indigenous engagement in peatland management, CaMP and CLASSIC modelling, current work on complying restoration C data, and challenges in estimating C emissions.