Tucked away in the high latitudes and mist-laced valleys of the world, peatlands are among Earth’s most effective climate regulators despite a lack of public attention.
These waterlogged landscapes, where layers of dead plant material have built up over thousands of years without fully decomposing, are anything but barren or lifeless. They are slow-growing, deeply layered, and contribute to climate mitigation on a large scale. Peatlands store 30% of the world’s carbon – twice as much carbon as all the world’s forests combined – despite occupying just around 3% of the planet’s surface.