The Water Institute is delighted to announce that it has recently become a member of the Global Peatlands Initiative (GPI).
The GPI is an effort by leading experts and institutions formed at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of the Parties meeting in Marrakech, Morocco in 2016 to save peatlands as the world’s largest terrestrial organic carbon stock and to prevent it being emitted into the atmosphere. Partners to the Initiative are working together within their respective areas of expertise to improve the conservation, restoration and sustainable management of peatlands. In this way the Initiative is contributing to several Sustainable Development Goals, including reducing greenhouse gas emissions, maintaining ecosystem services, and securing lives and livelihoods through improved adaptive capacity. One of the first outputs of the Global Peatlands Initiative will be an assessment, which will focus on the status of peatlands and their importance in the global carbon cycle.
"Canada has the largest peat stock in the world. Water Institute researchers work at the leading edge of science to understand the drivers of change in Canada’s peatlands, and to identify appropriate responses. Participating in the Global Peatlands Initiative will allow us to share our knowledge and expertise with, and learn from, national and international partners to advance the sustainable management of peatlands in Canada and around the world.” Roy Brouwer, Executive Director of the Water Institute, said.
The Water Institute includes several international and national peatlands experts, including Roland Hall, Merrin Macrae, Richard Petrone, Jonathan Price, Fereidoun Rezanezhad, Derek Robinson, Rebecca Rooney, Maria Strack, Philippe Van Cappellen, and Barry Warner. Through participation in the GPI, Water Institute researchers will be able to share their peatland science with national and international peers and stakeholders in this global network, contribute to the international knowledge base, and enhance the uptake of their science in policy and decision-making in Canada and elsewhere. The Water Institute is currently organizing a GPI workshop in the margins of the Québec RE3 Conference in early-June 2020 together with the UN to scope work on a national peatlands assessment. Stay tuned for details. In addition, the Water Institute just released a special issue of its newsletter WaterResearch that focuses on its members’ wetlands work.
