Description: Peatlands provide globally important ecosystem services through climate and water regulation or biodiversity conservation. While covering only 3% of the earth's surface, degrading peatlands are responsible for nearly a quarter of carbon emissions from the land use sector. Bringing together world-class experts from science, policy and practice to highlight and debate the importance of peatlands from an ecological, social and economic perspective, this book focuses on how peatland restoration can foster climate change mitigation. Featuring a range of global case studies, opportunities for reclamation and sustainable management are illustrated throughout against the challenges faced by conservation biologists. Written for a global audience of environmental scientists, practitioners and policy makers, as well as graduate students from natural and social sciences, this interdisciplinary book provides vital pointers towards managing peatland conservation in a changing environment.
Brief description: Aletta Bonn is Professor of Ecosystem Services at the Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena and Head of the Department of Ecosystem Services at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ within the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig.