International workshop on Restoring Peatlands in Russia
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Peatland conservation and restoration
An international workshop on restoration of peatlands in Russia was held on September 27-28 in Vladimir and Meschera National Park.
The workshop was organized within the project “Restoring Peatlands in Russia – for fire prevention and climate change mitigation” which is part of the International Climate Initiative.
The participants came from administrative regions of Russia, as well as other countries. They represented executive authorities of various levels, federal specially protected natural areas, the scientific community and educational institutions, private sector, and non-governmental nonprofit organisations.
The topics addressed during the workshop were peatland management, conservation, and restoration in Russia and worldwide.
The “Restoring Peatlands in Russia” project has introduced innovative technologies for rewetting of disturbed peatlands that have increasingly become popular in Russia. In the course of its implementation, model rewetting activities were carried out on an area of over 30,000 ha in the Moscow, Vladimir, Nizhny Novgorod, and Tver provinces. Monitoring activities and assessments of rewetting effectiveness in terms of fire prevention and climate change mitigation were carried out on over 70,000 ha in the Moscow Province.
The German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) supports the International Climate Initiative on the basis of a decision adopted by the German Bundestag. The Restoring Peatlands in Russia – for fire prevention and climate change mitigation project is facilitated through the German Development Bank KfW, and is jointly implemented by Wetlands International, the Michael Succow Foundation, Greifswald University and the Institute of Forest Science, Russian Academy of Sciences in co-operation with the Ministry of Nature Resources and Environment of the Russian Federation, governments of Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Tver and Vladimir provinces.