Carbon Storage in Amazonian Peatlands: Distribution and Dynamics
Lead Research Organisation:
University of St Andrews
Department Name: Geography and Sustainable Development
Abstract
This proposal aims to make a step change in the precision and accuracy of our knowledge of the distribution of peatlands in the tropics, and to develop a capacity to predict and monitor future changes to the carbon storage function of these peatlands.
Tropical forest ecosystems are important for carbon storage. The densest 'carbon hotspots' occur where peat underlies the vegetation. Peat is an organic soil formed by the accumulation of plant litter, often over thousands of years, usually under waterlogged conditions which limit micro-organism activity and inhibit litter decomposition.
Given that they store so much carbon per unit area, tropical peatlands should be priorities for conservation. Unfortunately, it is not currently known with certainty where peatlands occur. Even using satellite imagery, it is challenging to distinguish forest overlying peat from forest occurring on dry soil. Mapping peat deposits in the field by trial and error is impractical given the large areas of remote terrain involved.
This proposal builds on an extensive record of research into tropical peatlands by the research team. Our group has worked extensively in the Pastaza-Marañón Foreland Basin (PMFB) in Peruvian Amazonia. Here, in one of the highest-rainfall regions of Amazonia, the existence of extensive bodies of peat was only revealed by a publication in 2009. Since then, we have undertaken extensive fieldwork and laboratory analyses, and have developed an algorithm that uses remotely-sensed (satellite) data to predict the distribution of vegetation types associated with peat in the PMFB. On this basis we estimate that there is more than 35,000 square km of peat in the PMFB, making it by far the largest known peatland complex in Amazonia.
Our results were used to build the science case for the first ever carbon-conservation project funded by the Green Climate Fund, a major, intergovernmental, UN- and UK-backed climate mitigation project. We now want to develop the science base further to enable similar projects throughout the scheme.
Our first aim is to substantially develop and improve our current method for inferring the distributions of vegetation, peat and carbon from satellite data, by addressing fundamental gaps in our understanding of the controls on these distributions and by testing a set of technical improvements. We will then test how well our model works on floodplains in other parts of Amazonia. Ultimately we want to know how widespread peat is across the whole of Amazonia.
Our second aim is to develop, for the first time, the ability to predict and monitor future changes to tropical peatland carbon stocks. It is already possible to predict carbon accumulation patterns in northern peatlands from climatic and topographic data, and hence to predict how carbon accumulation may change under future climate scenarios (e.g. climatic drying), but a lack of basic data has prevented similar modelling from being attempted in the tropics. Recent advances in fusing modelling and remotely-sensed data are also opening new possibilities for monitoring present-day changes to the carbon cycle.
In order to achieve our second aim, we will study the pattern of peatland carbon storage through the last several thousand years, measure the rates at which litter is added to the peat and removed by decomposition today, and determine how these rates are affected by variations in hydrological regimes. We will use this information to determine, using a process-based model of peat accumulation, the conditions required for peat to accumulate. By doing so we will be able to evaluate and refine two complementary, simpler process-based models of peat distribution and carbon cycling that are suited to prediction and monitoring on a pan-tropical scale.
Tropical forest ecosystems are important for carbon storage. The densest 'carbon hotspots' occur where peat underlies the vegetation. Peat is an organic soil formed by the accumulation of plant litter, often over thousands of years, usually under waterlogged conditions which limit micro-organism activity and inhibit litter decomposition.
Given that they store so much carbon per unit area, tropical peatlands should be priorities for conservation. Unfortunately, it is not currently known with certainty where peatlands occur. Even using satellite imagery, it is challenging to distinguish forest overlying peat from forest occurring on dry soil. Mapping peat deposits in the field by trial and error is impractical given the large areas of remote terrain involved.
This proposal builds on an extensive record of research into tropical peatlands by the research team. Our group has worked extensively in the Pastaza-Marañón Foreland Basin (PMFB) in Peruvian Amazonia. Here, in one of the highest-rainfall regions of Amazonia, the existence of extensive bodies of peat was only revealed by a publication in 2009. Since then, we have undertaken extensive fieldwork and laboratory analyses, and have developed an algorithm that uses remotely-sensed (satellite) data to predict the distribution of vegetation types associated with peat in the PMFB. On this basis we estimate that there is more than 35,000 square km of peat in the PMFB, making it by far the largest known peatland complex in Amazonia.
Our results were used to build the science case for the first ever carbon-conservation project funded by the Green Climate Fund, a major, intergovernmental, UN- and UK-backed climate mitigation project. We now want to develop the science base further to enable similar projects throughout the scheme.
Our first aim is to substantially develop and improve our current method for inferring the distributions of vegetation, peat and carbon from satellite data, by addressing fundamental gaps in our understanding of the controls on these distributions and by testing a set of technical improvements. We will then test how well our model works on floodplains in other parts of Amazonia. Ultimately we want to know how widespread peat is across the whole of Amazonia.
Our second aim is to develop, for the first time, the ability to predict and monitor future changes to tropical peatland carbon stocks. It is already possible to predict carbon accumulation patterns in northern peatlands from climatic and topographic data, and hence to predict how carbon accumulation may change under future climate scenarios (e.g. climatic drying), but a lack of basic data has prevented similar modelling from being attempted in the tropics. Recent advances in fusing modelling and remotely-sensed data are also opening new possibilities for monitoring present-day changes to the carbon cycle.
In order to achieve our second aim, we will study the pattern of peatland carbon storage through the last several thousand years, measure the rates at which litter is added to the peat and removed by decomposition today, and determine how these rates are affected by variations in hydrological regimes. We will use this information to determine, using a process-based model of peat accumulation, the conditions required for peat to accumulate. By doing so we will be able to evaluate and refine two complementary, simpler process-based models of peat distribution and carbon cycling that are suited to prediction and monitoring on a pan-tropical scale.
Planned Impact
1. Governments and carbon investment markets will benefit from a stronger science base on the distribution and vulnerability of tropical carbon stores. This is important because, in the wake of the UNFCCC Paris COP21 agreement in December 2015, increased investment of taxpayer money in carbon-based development projects will occur. For example, the UK government has committed US$1.2 billion to the UN-backed Green Climate Fund (GCF). It is important that this money is spent as efficiently as possible.
2. Stakeholders involved in developing and applying for carbon-based climate change mitigation projects will benefit by being better informed about the location and prospects of peatland 'carbon hotspots'. These stakeholders include NGOs (e.g. in Peru, PROFONANPE, a fund for promotion of protected natural areas) and governmental and quasi-autonomous agencies (e.g. our project partners IIAP), who may apply for and/or benefit from funding under schemes such as the GCF. Our remote-sensing based model of the distribution of peatland carbon has already been used to form the science base for a GCF project.
3. Organisations involved in monitoring and protecting natural resources in the tropics (for example, NGOs such as the WWF, and government bodies such as SERNANPE, the national parks agency in Peru), will benefit from improved tools for monitoring change in peatland ecosystems. In our main study area, the Pastaza-Marañón Foreland Basin, our project will enlarge the network of forest census plots and improve the quality of data collected (e.g. by installing permanent peat measurement poles). A more widely applicable tool will be provided by our evaluation of the use of data assimilation techniques to detect changes in hydrological behaviour and carbon cycling remotely.
4. Communities living in around tropical peatlands will benefit, as our science will enable carbon-based investment projects that are compatible with sustainable development goals, reducing poverty and increasing community resilience.
5. Conservation NGOs and other non-academic institutions outside our study regions will benefit from access to our methodologies and datasets, packaged in an accessible form as a toolkit for peatland carbon distribution estimation and modelling. This will facilitate other groups to carry out their own assessments of peatland carbon storage.
6. Practicing conservation scientists in western Amazonia will benefit, via a knowledge-exchange workshop hosted by Project Partners IIAP to promote peatland science and carbon conservation in the region.
7. The media and general public will benefit, via press releases and other outreach activities.
2. Stakeholders involved in developing and applying for carbon-based climate change mitigation projects will benefit by being better informed about the location and prospects of peatland 'carbon hotspots'. These stakeholders include NGOs (e.g. in Peru, PROFONANPE, a fund for promotion of protected natural areas) and governmental and quasi-autonomous agencies (e.g. our project partners IIAP), who may apply for and/or benefit from funding under schemes such as the GCF. Our remote-sensing based model of the distribution of peatland carbon has already been used to form the science base for a GCF project.
3. Organisations involved in monitoring and protecting natural resources in the tropics (for example, NGOs such as the WWF, and government bodies such as SERNANPE, the national parks agency in Peru), will benefit from improved tools for monitoring change in peatland ecosystems. In our main study area, the Pastaza-Marañón Foreland Basin, our project will enlarge the network of forest census plots and improve the quality of data collected (e.g. by installing permanent peat measurement poles). A more widely applicable tool will be provided by our evaluation of the use of data assimilation techniques to detect changes in hydrological behaviour and carbon cycling remotely.
4. Communities living in around tropical peatlands will benefit, as our science will enable carbon-based investment projects that are compatible with sustainable development goals, reducing poverty and increasing community resilience.
5. Conservation NGOs and other non-academic institutions outside our study regions will benefit from access to our methodologies and datasets, packaged in an accessible form as a toolkit for peatland carbon distribution estimation and modelling. This will facilitate other groups to carry out their own assessments of peatland carbon storage.
6. Practicing conservation scientists in western Amazonia will benefit, via a knowledge-exchange workshop hosted by Project Partners IIAP to promote peatland science and carbon conservation in the region.
7. The media and general public will benefit, via press releases and other outreach activities.
Organisations
- University of St Andrews (Lead Research Organisation)
- Peruvian Amazon Research Institute (Collaboration)
- University of Manchester (Collaboration)
- ETH Zurich (Collaboration)
- Instituto de Investigaciones de la Amazonía Peruana (Collaboration, Project Partner)
- United Nations (UN) (Collaboration)
- University of New Hampshire (Project Partner)
- Max Planck Institutes (Project Partner)
- Field Museum of Natural History (Project Partner)
- Arizona State University (Project Partner)
- Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Project Partner)
Publications
Schulz C
(2019)
Peatland and wetland ecosystems in Peruvian Amazonia: indigenous classifications and perspectives
in Ecology and Society
Schulz C
(2019)
Uses, cultural significance, and management of peatlands in the Peruvian Amazon: Implications for conservation
in Biological Conservation
Sassoon D
(2023)
Influence of flooding variability on the development of an Amazonian peatland
in Journal of Quaternary Science
Mitchard ETA
(2018)
The tropical forest carbon cycle and climate change.
in Nature
Marcus MS
(2024)
Spatial distribution of degradation and deforestation of palm swamp peatlands and associated carbon emissions in the Peruvian Amazon.
in Journal of environmental management
Lawson I
(2022)
The vulnerability of tropical peatlands to oil and gas exploration and extraction
in Progress in Environmental Geography
Lauerwald R
(2023)
Inland Water Greenhouse Gas Budgets for RECCAP2: 1. State-Of-The-Art of Global Scale Assessments
in Global Biogeochemical Cycles
Lauerwald R
(2023)
Inland Water Greenhouse Gas Budgets for RECCAP2: 2. Regionalization and Homogenization of Estimates
in Global Biogeochemical Cycles
Description | We produced a predictive map of the distribution of peat in Peru's Amazonian region, the first map of its kind (based on extensive field data and remote sensing) covering the whole area (Hastie et al. in press). This is also the first map in Amazonia to estimate peat thickness on a regional scale. From this we estimate peatland below-ground carbon storage at c. 5.8 Gt C, which is similar to the carbon storage above ground of all of Peru's trees. We also estimated emissions from peatland degradation and showed that these are currently small, but increasing. These findings are important for Peru's climate change mitigation policy. Our new field data and mapping showed that the area in Peru of peatland pole forest, the most carbon-dense ecosystem known in Amazonia, is substantially (61%) larger than previously thought (Honorio Coronado et al. 2021). We produced an improved estimate for the mean carbon storage of peatland pole forest (1,133 +/- 93 Mg C ha-1). Analysis of our mapping showed that only 15% of this peatland pole forest is currently within a protected area, and argued that it should be a priority for conservation. |
Exploitation Route | Our map and emissions estimates are being used by Peru's Ministry of Environment to help to develop climate change mitigation policy. Our mapping is also proving to be important to other end-users including SERNANP (Peru's National Parks authority) and PROFONANPE (an NGO administering a major Green Climate Fund carbon conservation project in our study region). |
Sectors | Environment Government Democracy and Justice |
Description | Our project explicitly includes capacity-building in our partner institution (a quasi-autonomous research institution, IIAP, Peru) as an activity. We are supporting early career researchers by involving them in our research. One of these researchers, Jhon del Aguila Pasquel, successfully co-led a funding application (jointly with us) which secured considerable further funding for IIAP, directly building on his experience and incorporating the methods that we co-developed. Our project has also enabled him to raise awareness about peatland carbon storage with a variety of governmental and non-governmental organisations. He subsequently secured a funded PhD position in the UK at the University of Exeter. Another colleague at IIAP, Euridice Honorio Coronado, secured a NERC Knowledge Exchange Fellowship (2021-2024) explicitly to pursue the application of the findings of this project, among our other funded projects, to policy and practice around peatland conservation and climate change mitigation. Central to this KE fellowship is one of the key scientific outputs of our project, the first data-driven map of peatland extent covering the whole of Peruvian Amazonia. This capacity-building - training of personnel, provision of mapping products, contribution to policy development around peatland conservation - is a significant legacy of our work in Peru and a contribution both to ODA and to the SDGs (specifically SDGs 13, Climate Action, and 15, Life on Land). Members of the project team (Lawson, Hastie, Honorio Coronado) have been consulted by the Peruvian Government (Ministry of Environment) and our mapping of Amazonian peatlands has contributed to discussions around the definition of peat and the inclusion of peatlands in Peru's Nationally Determined Contributions to climate change mitigation. |
First Year Of Impact | 2020 |
Sector | Environment,Government, Democracy and Justice |
Impact Types | Policy & public services |
Description | Contribution to UNEP Global Peatlands Assessment |
Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
Policy Influence Type | Citation in systematic reviews |
URL | https://www.unep.org/resources/global-peatlands-assessment-2022 |
Description | An inter-continental comparison of tropical peatland dynamics |
Amount | £47,326 (GBP) |
Organisation | Government of Scotland |
Department | Scottish Funding Council |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 01/2021 |
End | 07/2021 |
Description | Institutional Links Grant |
Amount | £99,972 (GBP) |
Organisation | Newton Fund |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 02/2019 |
End | 02/2020 |
Description | Knowledge Exchange and Impact Fund |
Amount | £1,425 (GBP) |
Organisation | University of St Andrews |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 08/2018 |
End | 10/2018 |
Description | Oil exploitation, peatlands and indigenous territories: the impacts of oil at the extractive frontier in the Peruvian Amazon. |
Amount | £41,810 (GBP) |
Organisation | Government of Scotland |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 01/2021 |
End | 06/2021 |
Description | Peatland resilience: Knowledge exchange for the conservation and sustainable management of forested tropical peatlands |
Amount | £216,789 (GBP) |
Funding ID | NE/V018760/1 |
Organisation | Natural Environment Research Council |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 09/2021 |
End | 10/2024 |
Description | Peatlands in Action |
Amount | £1,990 (GBP) |
Organisation | British Ecological Society |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 07/2021 |
End | 10/2021 |
Description | Scottish Funding Council Overseas Development Assistance |
Amount | £2,537 (GBP) |
Organisation | University of St Andrews |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 05/2018 |
End | 08/2018 |
Description | Scottish Funding Council Overseas Development Assistance |
Amount | £17,380 (GBP) |
Organisation | University of St Andrews |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 09/2018 |
End | 07/2019 |
Description | Valuing Intact Tropical Peatlands: An Interdisciplinary Challenge |
Amount | £395,818 (GBP) |
Organisation | The Leverhulme Trust |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 01/2019 |
End | 12/2020 |
Title | Ecosystem productivity data from wetland sites in the Pastaza-Marañón Basin, Amazonian Peru, 2018-2020 |
Description | Ecosystem productivity data primarily from two forest census plots, NYO-03 and VEN-02, located in the Pastaza-Marañón Basin in Amazonian Peru. Site NYO-03 is a peatland pole forest, and Site VEN-02 is a palm swamp. The aim of the measurements was to estimate and compare rates of litter and root production and decay at the two sites, over a complete annual cycle, in order to understand the dynamics of carbon accumulation in peat in this region. Selected datasets extend to other sites, in order to provide some context for the measurements from NYO-03 and VEN-02. Downcore data from peat cores from the sites provide palaeoecological information. |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2023 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | None so far |
URL | https://catalogue.ceh.ac.uk/id/e34dc4c7-57d8-4120-921b-06d2f25d5e04 |
Title | Half-hourly water level and temperature measurements from seven wetland sites in the Pastaza-Marañón Basin, Amazonian Peru, 2018-2020 |
Description | Automated measurements of water level and temperature at half-hourly intervals spanning parts of 2018, 2019 and 2020, from seven wetland sites in the Pastaza-Marañón Basin, Amazonian Peru. |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2023 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | The data have been used as part of a larger synthesis published by Flores Llampazo et al. (2022). |
URL | https://catalogue.ceh.ac.uk/id/0d1d15da-e356-492d-88db-2dba3b9ec9b4 |
Title | Model code of peatland distribution and predicted peat thickness in lowland Amazonian Peru |
Description | Two scripts for classifying remotely sensed data used to produce maps of peatland distribution and predicted peat thickness, using random forest classification and regression. Written in JavaScript for use with Google Earth Engine. These are versions of the scripts used in Hastie, A. et al. (2022). Users should also cite Rodríguez-Veiga, P. et al. (2020). |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2024 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | The methods here were published by Hastie et al. (2022) and used by the Peruvian Government in their development of policy to protect Peruvian peatland carbon stocks. |
URL | https://catalogue.ceh.ac.uk/id/e337de58-df5e-4412-8aef-28875870f965 |
Title | Peat depths from the Pastaza-Marañón Basin, Amazonian Peru, 2019-2020 |
Description | Data on peat depth from >250 locations in the Pastaza-Marañón Basin, Amazonian Peru. The data were collected during a series of field campaigns in 2019 and 2020. These data, along with similar data collected under other projects, were used to train a predictive model of peat distribution. Locations of a small number of other sites are given without peat depth measurements (i.e. with NA in the column Peat_depth_cm); these sites relate to data reported elsewhere in the 'Carbon Storage in Amazonian Peatlands' data collection. |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2023 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | These data underpinned the peat carbon mapping of Hastie et al. (2022) which, via this project's impact-related activities and a follow-on NERC Knowledge Exchange Fellowship, have influenced Peru's policy towards peatland carbon management. They also fed into the United Nations Environment Programme Global Peatland Assessment report, a benchmark policy-facing review of the state of the world's peatlands. |
URL | https://catalogue.ceh.ac.uk/id/ab13a06f-392f-4bc6-b1bf-06dd8b020307 |
Title | Peatland Distribution Maps for Lowland Peruvian Amazonia, 2022 |
Description | Spatial datasets of predicted land cover, peatland extent, peat thickness and peatland carbon storage for the Lowland Peruvian Amazon. (These datasets were previously made available at datashare.ed.ac.uk but have been updated with new metadata and hosted by the NERC EIDC.) |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2023 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | The maps have been used by the Peruvian government during their development of policy around peat carbon management |
URL | https://catalogue.ceh.ac.uk/documents/db3de2d7-b094-4d15-a40b-edb618ede889 |
Title | Risks to carbon storage from land-use change revealed by peat thickness maps of Peru |
Description | Tropical peatlands are among the most carbon dense ecosystems but land-use change has led to the loss of large peatland areas, associated with substantial greenhouse gas emissions. In order to design effective conservation and restoration policies, maps of the location and carbon storage of tropical peatlands are vital. This is especially so in countries such as Peru where the distribution of its large, hydrologically intact peatlands is poorly known. Here, field and remote sensing data support model development of peatland extent and thickness for lowland Peruvian Amazonia. We estimate a peatland area of 62,714 (5th and 95th confidence interval percentiles 58,325-67,102 respectively) km2 and carbon stock of 5.4 (2.6-10.6) Pg C, a value approaching the entire above-ground carbon stock of Peru but contained within just 5% of its land area. Combining the map of peatland extent with national land-cover data we reveal small but growing areas of deforestation and associated CO2 emissions from peat decomposition, due to conversion to mining, urban areas, and agriculture. The emissions from peatland areas classified as forest in 2000 represent 1-4% of Peruvian CO2 forest emissions between 2000 and 2016. We suggest that bespoke monitoring, protection and sustainable management of tropical peatlands are required to avoid further degradation and CO2 emissions |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2022 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | The peatland carbon map has fed into discussion with Peru's Ministry of Environment about developing policy around reducing and avoiding carbon emissions from peatlands. The mapping also contributed to the UN Environment Program's Global Peatland Assessment. |
URL | https://datashare.ed.ac.uk/handle/10283/4364 |
Description | Global Peatlands Assessment |
Organisation | United Nations (UN) |
Department | United Nations Environment Programme |
Country | Kenya |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
PI Contribution | We contributed to a global assessment of the condition of peatlands, including a substantial contribution to the chapter on South American peatlands. |
Collaborator Contribution | UNEP's Global Peatlands Initiative has been active in coordinating peatland researchers around the globe and raising awareness of peat carbon storage. The Global Peatlands Assessment is set to become a benchmark reference document for policymakers and NGOs. |
Impact | UNEP Global Peatlands Assessment https://www.unep.org/resources/global-peatlands-assessment-2022 |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | Instituto de Investigaciones de la Amazonia Peruana |
Organisation | Instituto de Investigaciones de la Amazonía Peruana |
Country | Peru |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | The project enabled to us to build substantially on existing links with the Instituto de Investigaciones de la Amazonia Peruana (IIAP), which began with an earlier NERC funded project. The project has been important in helping to support and train early career researchers at IIAP, two of whom have now moved on to posts in the UK still focusing on peatland research. We also worked with IIAP colleagues to secure follow-on funding (listed separately). |
Collaborator Contribution | IIAP personnel were responsible for most of the regular monitoring work during the project. When the Covid pandemic made travel from the UK to Peru impossible, IIAP staff were able to keep the field data collection going to a large degree. IIAP staff have also taken a leading role in publishing the results of our collaborative project and in coordinating the impact-related work, e.g. by setting up meeting with Peru's Minstry of Environment. |
Impact | Honorio-Coronado et al. (2021) Intensive field sampling increases the known extent of carbon-rich Amazonian peatland pole forests. Environmental Research Letters 16 074048. Follow-on funding: NERC KE Fellowship to Honorio Coronado; Newton Funding to J. Del Aguila Pasqual and K. Roucoux. Impact-related meetings with Peruvian government and NGOs (listed separately). The collaboration is multi-disciplinary in that we are also working with the social anthropology team at IIAP. |
Start Year | 2017 |
Description | PhD studentship at University of Manchester |
Organisation | University of Manchester |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | K. Roucoux co-supervised Dael Sassoon, based at University of Manchester, to successful PhD completion, in collaboration with his lead supervisor Dr William Fletcher. This was a new collaboration. A large part of Dr Sassoon's thesis concerned analyses of material that we collected under this award, and his fieldwork was facilitated by our long-term collaboration with IIAP in Peru, which in turn had been substantially strengthened by this award. |
Collaborator Contribution | Substantial inputs from Drs Fletcher and Sassoon, as indicated above. |
Impact | PhD thesis at https://www.escholar.manchester.ac.uk/uk-ac-man-scw:332018 Publication by Sassoon et al at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jqs.3587 (listed separately under 'publications') Conference paper by Sassoon et al at https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2023EGUGA..2514646S/abstract |
Start Year | 2018 |
Description | Protecting biodiversity and sustainable livelihoods in the wetlands of Peruvian Amazonia |
Organisation | Peruvian Amazon Research Institute |
Country | Peru |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
PI Contribution | Through co-working with the Peruvian Amazon Research Institute (IIAP) during our NERC-funded research project, we built research relationships and encouraged interest in our peatland research area. This led to two researchers (John del Aguila Pasquel and Euridice Honorio Coronado) working with us on a Newton-Paulet Institutional Links application, which was funded. |
Collaborator Contribution | The team at IIAP have vital local knowledge and a solid track record of research into Amazonian forest ecosystems, including some work with indigenous communities. They also introduced us to new research questions around water quality, which may find applications in the water treatment industry. |
Impact | Successful grant application to the Newton-Paulet Institutional Links programme. |
Start Year | 2018 |
Description | Scott Winton/ETH Zurich |
Organisation | ETH Zurich |
Country | Switzerland |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Our team provided expertise in mapping and peatland modelling to a research project based in Columbia. We are collaborating on publications. |
Collaborator Contribution | Winton's team have provided field data from Columbia which are feeding into our assessment of peatland distribution across Amazonia. |
Impact | Preliminary results were presented at AGU "Diverse carbon-rich peatlands in the Amazonia and Orinoquia of Colombia" |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | Engagement with food group AJE |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | The new Partnerships for Forests (P4F) project 'Super fruits for forest conservation' funded by the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office and Department for Business Enterprise and Skills with multinational beverage company, AJE, is expanding the market for aguaje fruit in the wetlands of the Peruvian Amazon. Our involvement in the steering committee is supporting the design of their socioecological monitoring to demonstrate the sustainability of the project. This project is envisaged to provide a case study of a nature-based solution for COP in Glasgow at end-2021, presented by the UK embassy in Peru. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020,2021 |
Description | Interview with New York Times |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
Results and Impact | An interview with a representative of the New York Times Headway team which is developing a series of outputs around peatlands |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/02/21/headway/peat-carbon-climate-change.html |
Description | Media interview - Mongabay |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
Results and Impact | An interview with a journalist from the leading environmental online news site Mongabay on tropical peatland research - focused on Congo peatlands but also discussed in relation to Amazonian peatlands. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/the-past-present-and-future-of-the-congo-peatlands-10-takeaways-fr... |
Description | Meeting with Datem Del Maranon Green Climate Fund project |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | A meeting with representatives of the Green Climate Fund project "Proyecto Humedales" to share our research findings on the distribution of peatlands in Datem del Maranon province. This information is likely to be important to the evaluation of that project in terms of its contribution to avoiding emissions from peatlands. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://www.greenclimate.fund/project/fp001 |
Description | Meeting with SERNANP |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | A first meeting with SERNANP, the national parks authority of Peru, to discuss how our research results can inform their policy and practice around peatland conservation. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://www.gob.pe/sernanp |
Description | Meeting with representatives of the Peruvian Ministry of Culture |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | Meetings between our IIAP colleagues, funded as part of the outreach/ODA part of this project, and representatives of the Ministry of Culture in Lima including the viceminister of the viceministry of interculturalism and other policymakers working with indigenous groups. These meetings aimed to communicate the relevance of the peatlands on which we are working and their carbon storage to policymakers concerned with socioeconomic and cultural development. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Meeting with representatives of the Peruvian Ministry of Education |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | A meeting with representatives of the Ministry of Education in Lima to discuss the relevance of the peatlands on which we are working and their high carbon storage to indigenous communities living in and around them, and particularly in relation to incorporating traditional ecological knowledge and traditional lifestyles in education programmes. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Meetings on peatland mapping with Peru's Ministry of Environment |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | We met with representatives of Peru's Ministry of Environment on several occasions to discuss the inclusion of our peatland mapping results in Peru's policy work on peatland conservation in relation to climate change mitigation. The interest in our work eventually led to Honorio Coronado's NERC-funded KE Fellowship, which is pursuing the application of our research findings to public policy and conservation practice. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | Participation in technical workshops at Ministry of Environment, Peru |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Our team participated in a series of technical workshops on peatland mapping hosted by Peru's Ministry of Environment. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | Presentation at the Ministry of Environment, Lima, Peru, February 2019 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | A researcher on our project, Jhon del Aguila Pasquel, presented our work on tropical peatlands at a workshop at the MInistry of Environment, Lima, Peru. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Stakeholder Workshop, Iquitos |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | We held a stakeholder workshop in Iquitos, Peru, in collaboration with our in-country partners, to relay our group's recent findings on tropical peatlands and to gain insights into the research needs of stakeholders. About 30 attendees from a range of governmental and NGOs attended. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Workshop on mapping peatlands in Peru |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | We were invited to contribute to a series of workshops on peatland mapping organised by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation and Peru's Ministry of Environment |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |