Authors: Szewczyk, Monika; Mikołajczyk, Piotr;

Peatlands are important ecosystems, providing valuable ecosystem services, e.g. acting as effective carbon sinks and water retention reservoirs. Mountain peatlands play a particularly important role: due to their location in the upper parts of catchments, they positively impact on water regimes over vast areas.

Peatlands are degraded by drainage, conversion into agricultural land, extraction of peat, fires, etc. Degraded peatlands are responsible for over 5% of the world's human-induced CO2 emissions.

Meeting the goal of keeping the global average temperature rise below 2°C compared to the pre-industrial era requires urgent action to keep the peatland carbon where it is - in saturated peat. We need to improve water conditions in already drained peatlands so that they can recover, ensuring sustained provision of ecosystem services.

We address this challenge with our new project "Carpathians Unite – Conservation of Orawsko-Nowotarskie Peatlands", implemented in partnership with the Nature and Man Foundation and the Norwegian company Asplan Viak, with co-funding from EEA Grants. Its main objectives are active protection of valuable natural raised bog habitats, in the "Czerwone Bog Woodland" reserve (Ramsar site), as well as the enhancement of wetland-friendly spatial management in the entire Natura 2000 "Orawsko-Nowotarskie Peatlands" area.