资源环境科技发展态势分析平台

According to the latest Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services assessment, 75% of land, 66% of oceans and 85% of our planet’s wetlands have been negatively impacted by human activity. The United Nations' reports are also raising alarm bells on the climate crisis and tipping points from which we may not be able to rehabilitate our planet’s ability to deliver life-supporting vital goods and services.

To build knowledge on how nature functions to deliver goods and services to humanity, the United Nations Environment Programme's (UNEP) Wild for Life 2.0 campaign will bring users on an interactive journey to learn about 4 distinct ecosystems- marine, peatlands, savannas and forests -why they are crucial to human well-being, why they are under threat and what we can do to help.

The latest journey features a unique ecosystem: The Peatlands, which filter fresh water, nurture medicinal plants, protect the land from floods and capture and store enormous quantities of carbon. Though peatlands cover only 3% of the planet’s surface, they store twice as much carbon than all the world’s forests combined!

The setting for Wild for Life 2.0’s interactive Peatlands journey is globally significant peatlands such as the Peatland of Peninsula Mitre in the Southern Cone of South America. The Tierra del Fuego archipelago represents the southernmost part of the Magellanic peatland (moorland). The main island, Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego, is divided between Chile in the west and Argentina in the east. Oceanic conditions and the SW wind direction prevail in southern Tierra del Fuego, where a west-east aligned mountain range dominates the landscape.

UNEP speaks to its Patron for Protected Areas, Kristine Tompkins, and Oceans, Lewis Pugh about the importance of peatlands. Both have been to this remote part of the world and are on the front line of advocating for protected areas, through the Tompkins and Lewis Pugh Foundations.