Germany to back global moorland protection initiative with two million euros

The German environment ministry (BMU) will support a global initiative to protect moorlands, which act as important storage for carbon emissions. Germany will fund the "Global Peatlands Initiative" with two million euros and help put the importance of intact moorlands on the agenda at the UN climate conference COP24 in Poland, the BMU says in a press release. “Moorlands are gigantic carbon storage units. If they fall dry, greenhouse gases are released,” said environment minister Svenja Schulze. She said not only did existing moorlands need more protection, but she also called for the re-naturalisation of dried up ones and raising awareness about the “world’s biggest terrestrial carbon dioxide repositories.” In Germany, about 90 percent of the country’s moorlands are considered to be dried up due to agricultural and other economic activities, the BMU says.
In September 2018, a large fire in a northern German moorland caused by a German army missile test is thought to have released hundreds of thousands of tonnes of CO2.

Read the press release in German here.