Peatlands are important natural ecosystems with high value for biodiversity conservation, climate regulation and human welfare. Peatlands are those wetland ecosystems characterized by the accumulation of organic matter (peat) derived from dead and decaying plant material under conditions of permanent water saturation. They cover over 4 million km2 worldwide, occur in over 180 countries and represent at least a third of the global wetland resource.

Inappropriate management is leading to large-scale degradation of peatlands with major environmental and social impacts. Rehabilitation and integrated management of peatlands can generate multiple benefits including poverty alleviation, combating land degradation, maintaining biodiversity, and mitigating climate change. Concerted action for the protection and wise use of peatlands should therefore be a global priority linking work at global regional and local levels.

Some of the major overall findings of the assessment are :

• Peatlands are the most efficient terrestrial ecosystems in storing carbon. While covering only 3% of the World's land area, their peat contains as much carbon as all terrestrial biomass, twice as much as all global forest biomass, and about the same as in the atmosphere. 

• Peatlands are the most important long-term carbon store in the terrestrial biosphere. They sequester and store atmospheric carbon for thousands of years.

• Peatlands are critical for biodiversity conservation. They support many specialised species and unique ecosystem types, and can provide a refuge for species that are expelled from non-peatland areas affected by degradation and climate change.

• Peatlands play a key role in water resource management, storing a significant proportion of global freshwater resources. Peatland degradation can disrupt water supplies and decrease flood control benefits.

• Degradation of peatlands is a major and growing source of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. Carbon dioxide emissions from peatland drainage, fires and exploitation are estimated to currently be equivalent to at least 3,000 million tonnes per annum or equivalent to more than 10% of the global fossil fuel emissions.

• Peatland degradation affects millions of people around the world. Drainage and fires in SE Asian peat swamp forests jeopardise the health and livelihoods of millions of people in several countries in the region. The destruction of mountain peatlands in Africa, Asia and Latin America threatens the water and food supply for large rural and urban populations.

• Climate change impacts are already visible through the melting of permafrost peatlands and desertification of steppe peatlands. In the future, impacts of climate change on peatlands are predicted to significantly increase. Coastal, tropical and mountain peatlands are all expected to be particularly vulnerable.

• Conservation, restoration and wise use of peatlands are essential and very cost-effective measures for long-term climate change mitigation and adaptation as well as biodiversity conservation.

• Optimising water management in peatlands (i.e. reducing drainage) is the single highest priority to combat C02 emissions from oxidation and fires as well as address peatland degradation and biodiversity conservation.

• There is, in most countries, an urgent need to strengthen awareness, understanding and capacity to manage peatlands - to address peatland degradation, biodiversity conservation and climate change.