A blueprint for how countries can keep carbon in fragile land-based carbon sinks to reduce greenhouse gas emissions has been unveiled by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Launched on Wednesday, the guidelines for peatland mapping and conservation come as around 15 per cent of the world’s peatlands have already been drained mainly for cropping, grazing, forestry and extraction. Hotspots of peatland degradation are located especially in Europe, Russia and Northern America, southeast Asia, East Africa and the Amazon basin. Peatlands cover only 3% of the world’s surface yet contain as much carbon as all of its vegetation.
By UN News. March 18, 2020.
