Research project underlines the importance of South Africa’s peatlands

Abstract

It is the threat of climate change that has put peatlands on the global environmental agenda in recent years, because they store vast quantities of carbon that contribute to greenhouse gas emissions when these wetlands are damaged or destroyed. The Global Peatlands Initiative – launched at the 2016 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 22) – released a rapid response assessment report at COP 23 in November 2017 to raise awareness about the importance of the world’s peatlands, and to encourage immediate action to protect them. Previously, peatlands only garnered this level of international attention when the various ‘bog bodies’ were discovered. The most famous examples are the remarkably well-preserved Tollund Man, discovered in a peat bog in Denmark in 1950 and dated to 300–400 years BC, and Lindow Man – nicknamed Pete Marsh – discovered in England in 1984 and dated to 20–90 AD.

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