More carbon dioxide is released when wetlands are disturbed or destroyed than when forests are cut down

ENVIRONMENT: Making Wetlands Count By Lowana Veal Sept 18th 2009

Iceland wants wetland restoration to be assessed for emission reduction units at the summit to work out a new deal on climate change in December in Copenhagen.
More carbon dioxide is released when wetlands are disturbed or destroyed than when forests are cut down. This is especially the case with peatlands, which contain dead organic matter (peat) with a carbon content of over 50 percent. These form under wet conditions where lack of oxygen hinders decomposition; wet conditions therefore limit the release of carbon dioxide.

There is a new focus on peatlands in climate change negotiations because of their high carbon content, which is released into the atmosphere when peatlands are damaged or drained. This is the rationale for including wetland and peatland restoration as a means of securing credits by Annex-1 countries in the new commitment period due from 2012 following the Kyoto Protocol.

A ‘global assessment on peatlands, diversity and climate change’ produced last year by the international non-governmental groups Wetlands International and the Global Environment Centre showed that carbon dioxide emissions from drained and damaged peatlands amount to more than 3,000 million tonnes annually, or over 11 percent of global fossil fuel emissions.

Rewetting peatlands can lead to an increase in methane emissions, but this is nearly always counterbalanced by a much larger decrease in carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide (N20) emissions. Besides carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane are the two other greenhouse gases known to cause global warming.

Link to full article