Global Peatlands Initiative

4/07/2026 With a strong triangular knowledge exchange: To achieve more for peatlands more than 100 participants at the recent 4th Meeting of the Partners of the Global Peatlands Initiative (GPI4) in Lima/Peru endeavoured to interlink
- field research in remote and difficult-to-access areas,
- decades of work with local communities
- growing experience with finance instruments and national policy processes

Indigenous Peoples and as well as government representatives of many countries shared their journeys towards integrating peatlands into national legal, planning and monitoring systems.
But - with traditional dances from Peru and the wonderful cultural performance by musicians of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the meeting  made a pivotal point: There’s a rich cultural dimension to peatlands – they will not be saved by science facts alone, but also by art, emotion and love.

Members of Greifswald Mire Centre shared work on:

• peatland science products, including the Global Peatland Map, Global Peatland Hotspot Atlas and the Peatland Breakthrough Targets,
• tools and mechanisms to support the integration of peatlands into NDCs and NBSAPs,
• the European Peatlands Initiative,
• peat formation and long-term carbon accumulation,
• and central concepts and definitions for peatland restoration and rewetting.

The Fourth Meeting of the Partners of the Global Peatlands Initiative in Peru reaffirmed that protecting peatlands is key for climate, biodiversity and livelihoods. From science to community action, GPI4 enabled partners to share lessons, strengthen alliances and advance a common agenda for these vital ecosystems. Their contributions to a 10-year strategy for GPI is upcoming.