In this policy brief to the EU parliament and ministers, Wetlands International offers recommendations to effectively address indirect land use change emissions (ILUC) from peatlands. We also provide factual information on peatlands and greenhouse gas emissions and emphasise the following key points:

• Biofuels production on peatlands increases greenhouse gas emissions
• Indirect land use change (ILUC) emissions from peatlands are significant
• Drainage of peatlands is unsustainable
• EU rules on biofuels and proposals on ILUC are inadequate

NGO sign on letter directed to environment ministers of Arctic states to urge them to use the occasion of their historic second meeting to take significant action to reduce emissions of black carbon.

 Este folleto muestra el objetito de la Iniciativa de la Ecosystem Alliance en Argentina.

This is the second edition of the publication that informs on management and finance options to achieve emissions reductions and enhance other vital ecosystem services from peatlands.

This decision support tree was developed for the 2012 report, Peatlands – guidance for climate change mitigation by conservation, rehabilitation and sustainable use. The report, available on line, outlines the steps in the decision-making process. Download the decision-support tree

This submission from Wetlands International to the Ad-hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) stresses the need for enhanced action with respect to the protection and restoration of natural ecosystems in efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

This submission from Wetlands International to the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) presents a proposal to add "Avoided Drainage" and "Rewetting" as additional activities under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).

This TEEB for Water and Wetlands Brief introduces the new initiative, presents initial ideas on the benefits and questions to be explored over the coming months. Obtaining new and complementary insights from the practical experience of stakeholders (ecosystem managers, communities, municipalities, decision makers from the public and private sector at local, national and international scale etc.) from around the world will be an important element in the development of this work Readers are invited to respond to the questions listed below and to submit further information and case studies.

Wetlands International and several partners with an interest in European water policy made the following submission to the European Commission's Consultation on Policy Options for the Blueprint to Safeguard Europe's waters. We highlight the importance of river restoration and green infrastructure for improving the health of Europe's waters and the role we can play to achieve these goals.

Wetlands International together with over 100 environmental and civil society NGOs have written to the European Commission President, José Manuel Barroso and his Commissioner colleagues, calling for the full climate impact of biofuels, including indirect land use change (ILUC), to be taken into account in EU environmental laws

This submission on REDD+ from Wetlands International to UN Climate Conference (UNFCCC-SBSTA) presents Wetlands International's views on how to address the drivers of deforestation and forest degradation and national forest monitoring systems. We focus on peatswamp forests, which has some specific characteristics and therefore need specific attention.

Wetlands International signed the letter of a coalition of European  NGOs to the governments and Commission on banning carbon dense fuels. The NGOs ask to take all emissions in the product life cycle into account. This would imply a ban on fuels like biodiesel from palm oil and oils sands.

At the COP17 Climate summit in Durban, Ministers decide whether or not it will be possible for developed countries to reduce their emissions by rewetting drained peatlands for meeting their emission reduction targets under a future climate agreement. Wetlands International, together with other non-profit organisations under the Ecosystems Climate Alliance, call for mandatory accounting for wetlands, because this would mean that a strong incentive will be created to stop the loss of wetlands.

 22 September 2011. Wetlands International together with several environmental NGOs have written to the European Commission President, José Manuel Barroso, demanding action on five scientific studies that question the clean energy benefits of biofuels.

The draft National REDD+ Strategy of Indonesia demonstrates that Indonesia has major ambitions to tackle its significant emissions from peatlands and conserve these unique ecosystems. This ambition is greatly welcomed and urgently needed. Some critical issues in the report, however, need to be addressed if Indonesia is to achieve its targets effectively and in a way that is environmentally, socially and economically sustainable.

This policy submission to the UN Climate Conference (UNFCCC) provides input to methodological guidance to the policy mechanism REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation). Wetlands International specifically focuses on the issue of peatlands in relation to REDD in this submission, which differ in relevant aspects from forests on mineral soil.

This policy brief provides background and recommendations with regard to REDD+ modalities and guidelines to be developed by the SBSTA and has been produced as input for the UN-FCCC meeting in Bonn, June 2011.

The Strategic Action Plan (SAP) was developed in the frame of the Wetlands International Black Sea Programme’s project «Towards integrating wetland biodiversity conservation with water and agricultural management in Ukraine. A pilot project in the Southern Bug River Basin». The draft SAP was discussed at 4 regional workshops and 15 roundtables in different settlements located in the Southern Bug River Basin during a public information and educational campaign in 2008—2010. The final version of the SAP was approved by participants of the Basin Conference on 14 May 2010. The Southern Bug Basin Council approved the SAP on 3 February 2011 and decided to use it in the drafting of regional and local programs.

This letter asks for attention for the global Land Use Change impacts caused by the European biofuel targets such as deforestation and wetland loss. The organanisations call for a so-called ILUC-factor; emissions to be added to the accounted emissions for producing biofuels.

This document was contributed to the Nairobi Work Programme of the UNFCCC secretariat.  It builds on a quarter century of work by Wetlands International related to maintaining the precious fresh water wetlands in the Sahel, highlighting activities on improving climate change adaptation planning, policies and practices in relation to fresh water management in Africa. 

Communiqué of the Symposium in Edinburgh on 'Valuing Wetlands In a Chaning Climate' , 24 February 2011.

This paper highlights the need to incorporate Ecosystem-based Adaptation approaches as vital components of adaptation strategies. It also calls for the establishment of mechanisms that help to avoid adverse environmental impacts resulting from well-intended adaptation projects, which in the long run might lead to mal-adaptation.

Forested tropical peatlands are rapidly being converted into plantations, causing large greenhouse gas emissions, in south-east Asia about 900 Mtons of CO2 each year. Reducing emissions from organic soils under (former) forests should be addressed in a REDD+ mechanism. REDD+ should also be expanded to other ecosystems with substantial carbon stocks, such as non-forested peatlands, provided that emission reductions are MRV-proof. The restoration of yet deforested and drained peatswamp forests and non-forested peatlands should also be eligible as activity under REDD+ and/or be prioritized as low carbon strategies under NAMA’s.

Wetlands International supports an ambitious work programme that leads to comprehensive accounting. The current 3.4 voluntary activities of cropland management, grazing land management and revegetation are rarely selected as an accounting activity, while the emissions, and mitigation potential are both significant in many situations. Many countries have elected not to account for emissions and removals from forest management. Finally, there is currently no category that allows for the accounting of emissions and reductions from wetland management.

In this document, Wetlands International prrovides comments to the European Commission public consultation on indirect land-use change (October 2010).

With this brief, delegates at CBD are asked to decide on actions to address climate change emissions due to ecosystem loss and by making sure that biodiversity values are maintained or even improved by actions for climate change mitiation (such as REDD, bIofuel production, reforestation).

Ahead of the upcoming tenth Conference of Parties (CoP10) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), Wetlands International, Conservation International, The Nature Conservancy  and WWF urge parties to strengthen work on the protection and sustainable use of inland water ecosystems, in particular with the following joint recommendations on the CBD Inland Waters Progamme of Work. 

Wetlands International gives two recommendations for the CBD post-2010 strategic targets.

A. New, stand alone target on water

B. Proposed revision of draft CBD target 14 

The meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity in 2010 (COP 10) has put the biodiversity target for 2020 on the agenda. These targets in fact set the agenda regarding biodiversity policies for the coming years. Wetlands International international has used this document to advocate for improved  targets; focusing on the role of healthy ecosystems for water supplies and carbon storage.

Wetlands International participated in a multi-stakeholder consultation process organised by World Bank on 3-4 June 2010 which aimed to identify how World Bank can address issues facing the palm oil sector. Since there are increasing concerns about sustainability issues in the sector, particularly related to palm oil production in Indonesia and Malaysia (the two largest producers of crude palm oil) the World Bank Group is undertaking this strategy preparation exercise for its activities and future direction for the palm oil sector. This policy brief holds Wetlands International’s input to this meeting. 

Input from Wetlands International on the draft targets for 2020 of the Convention on Biological Diversity.

This is the Final Joint Statement to Working Group 2 at SBSTTA 14 on the CBD’s Proposed Mission, Strategic Goals and Targets for the Post 2010 Framework, which is Agenda Item UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/14/10, on 17^thMay 2010, Nairobi, Kenya and was delivered by Muhtari Aminu-Kano, BirdLife International.

Allowing plantations to be classed as forests for the purpose of enabling engagement with emerging carbon trading markets will create perverse incentives that actually finance conversion of natural forests by wood / paper product and oil palm plantation companies with the associated significant loss of biodiversity1. The conversion of natural forests, whether to wood plantations or oil palm plantations, creates substantial greenhouse gas emissions, with up to 80% of carbon lost to the atmosphere depending on the type of forest ecosystem and the type of plantation which replaces it.

This submission to the CBD technical meeting in May 2010 in Nairobi (SBSTTA) contains Wetlands International's suggestions on the Indepth Programme of Work on Inland Waters.

The organisations of Pro Natura (Friends of the Earth Switzerland), Wetlands International, Humane
Society International and The Wilderness Society are working together in order to strengthen and safeguard biodiversity aspects in climate change mitigation policy, with the aim to create synergies in incentives to conserve forests, wetlands, peatlands and other natural habitats. We have engaged ourselves since 2008 in the context of the UNFCCC negotiations. The CBD has an important role in addressing biodiversity aspects in the UNFCCC negotiations. We therefore wish to make joint a proposal related to these topics to the 14th SBSTTA of the CBD in Nairobi.