By Nancy Goucher
Can-Peat: Peatlands as nature-based climate solutions got down to work at its first annual workshop held in Waterloo, ON at the end of January 2023. The meeting brought together 36 researchers, NGOs, industry, government and Indigenous communities from across Canada to discuss plans for meeting their ambitious goals which include creating a Canadian peatland network, developing a database to house peatland carbon data, advancing peatland carbon models, and identifying mechanisms for implementing peatland nature-based solutions.
Central themes for the workshop included Indigenous connections and knowledge, strengthening collaboration, and improving access to data. For instance, participants had an opportunity to learn and reflect on methods for braiding Indigenous and Western Science, the importance of Indigenous data sovereignty, and discuss how we could implement new tools for attributing cultural authority over Indigenous heritage and data. Participants also discussed how to apply best practices in research data management to create a functional database for peatland researchers and manager, as well as support ongoing collaboration and communication through the development of a Canada-wide peatland network.