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The three-peat challenge: business as usual, responsible agriculture, and conservation and restoration as management trajectories in global peatlands

Girkin, Nicholas T.; Burgess, Paul J.; Cole, Lydia; Cooper, Hannah V.; Honorio Coronado, Euridice; Davidson, Scott J.; Hannam, Jacqueline; Harris, Jim; Holman, Ian; McCloskey, Christopher S.; McKeown, Michelle M.; Milner, Alice M.; Page, Susan; Smith, Jo; Young, Dylan

The three-peat challenge: business as usual, responsible agriculture, and conservation and restoration as management trajectories in global peatlands Thumbnail


Authors

Paul J. Burgess

Lydia Cole

Euridice Honorio Coronado

Scott J. Davidson

Jacqueline Hannam

Jim Harris

Ian Holman

Christopher S. McCloskey

Michelle M. McKeown

Alice M. Milner

Susan Page

Jo Smith

Dylan Young



Abstract

Peatlands are a globally important carbon store, but peatland ecosystems from high latitudes to the tropics are highly degraded due to increasingly intensive anthropogenic activity, making them significant greenhouse gas (GHG) sources. Peatland restoration and conservation have been proposed as a nature-based solution to climate change, by restoring the function of peatlands as a net carbon sink, but this may have implications for many local communities who rely on income from activities associated with transformed peatlands, particularly those drained for agriculture. However, without changing the way that humans interact with and exploit peatlands in most regions, peatlands will continue to degrade and be lost. We propose that there are ultimately three potential trajectories for peatland management: business as usual, whereby peatland carbon sink capacity continues to be eroded, responsible agricultural management (with the potential to mitigate emissions, but unlikely to restore peatlands as a net carbon sink), and restoration and conservation. We term this the three-peat challenge, and propose it as a means to view the benefits of restoring peatlands for the environment, as well as the implications of such transitions for communities who rely on ecosystem services (particularly provisioning) from degraded peatlands, and the consequences arising from a lack of action. Ultimately, decisions regarding which trajectories peatlands in given localities will follow torequire principles of equitable decision-making, and support to ensure just transitions, particularly for communities who rely on peatland ecosystems to support their livelihoods.

Citation

Girkin, N. T., Burgess, P. J., Cole, L., Cooper, H. V., Honorio Coronado, E., Davidson, S. J., Hannam, J., Harris, J., Holman, I., McCloskey, C. S., McKeown, M. M., Milner, A. M., Page, S., Smith, J., & Young, D. (2023). The three-peat challenge: business as usual, responsible agriculture, and conservation and restoration as management trajectories in global peatlands. Carbon Management, 14(1), Article 2275578. https://doi.org/10.1080/17583004.2023.2275578

Journal Article Type Review
Acceptance Date Oct 19, 2023
Publication Date Dec 31, 2023
Deposit Date Jan 6, 2024
Publicly Available Date Jan 9, 2024
Journal Carbon Management
Print ISSN 1758-3004
Electronic ISSN 1758-3012
Publisher Taylor and Francis
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 14
Issue 1
Article Number 2275578
DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/17583004.2023.2275578
Keywords General Environmental Science
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/27364906
Publisher URL https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17583004.2023.2275578
Additional Information © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent

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