International workshop on ‘Restoring peatlands in Russia: Project outcomes and prospects for future cooperation’ was held in the city of Vladimir and the Meshchera National Park on 27-28 September 2016

Workshop participants got an insight into peatland management, conservation, and restoration in Russia and worldwide.They were made aware of outcomes of the Project “Restoring peatlands in Russia – for fire prevention and climate change mitigation” that were obtained in 2012–2016 and then discussed follow-up priorities of peatland restoration, conservation, and wise use activities in Russia that facilitate mitigation of and adaptation to climate change.

The 100 participants came from 15 constituent territories of the Russian Federation and six foreign countries. They represented executive authorities of various level (31 participants), federal specially protected nature areas (11 people), scientific community and educational institutions (22 people), private sector (13 people), and non-governmental nonprofit organizations (8 people).

The Project has introduced innovative technologies for rewetting degraded peatlands that increasingly become more popular in Russia. In the course of Project 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 Vladimir Province Administration that hosted the workshop in association with the Project identified priority sites for rewetting cutover peatland deposits. Plans of these works were included in the provincial environment conservation programme.

Peatland restoration aspects were vigorously discussed at the workshop in the form of interactive seminars, in particular rewetting methodology, socio-economic issues, legislation, scientific grounding of engineering projects, monitoring of rewetting results, economic incentives, capacity building, education and awareness raising.

A specialized seminar on “Voluntary carbon markets: possibilities and perspectives for Russia” was held during the workshop. Speeches of international experts on restoration and wise use of peatlands, including paludiculture development and sustainable use of peatlands, with case studies from Germany, Belarus, The Netherlands, and other countries, raised great interest among the participants.

Special attention was given to the selection of technologies and other practical problems that were put forward by experts during their excursion to rewetting sites in the Meschera National Park. Participants from other Russia’s regions expressed their interest in the rewetting activities on disturbed peatlands. Possible cooperation with private sector investors was discussed. In the course of the workshop, technological guidelines and other materials were presented to the participants.

Programme of the Workshop / Программа совещания

Presentations: