Presented by Maria Nuutinen, Forestry Officer, FAO in national workshop on Criteria and Indicators for Tropical Petland Restoration: Exploring Holistic and Practical Approaches for Monitoring Tropical Peatlands on 7 July 2022

2. Peatland monitoring in the global
context
Wrapping up & way forward
Maria Nuutinen
Food and Agriculture Organization of
the United Nations - FAO

3. Momentum & advances worldwide
• Recent increased recognition of peatlands: New
science, fires, GHG emissions, growing political
recognition, CBD, UNFCCC, Enhanced Transparency
Framework…
• Technical innovations: satellite estimates for soil
moisture monitoring, GWL monitoring, subsidence
• Capacity development, knowledge exchange &
cooperation: trainings on new tools & approaches
(links to UN Decade of Restoration); field tours, expert
exchanges to improve capacity and methods globally.
FAO, Rome

4. UN Decade on Ecosystem
Restoration & peatlands
CIFOR
• Restoration of peatlands (1 of 8 thematic focus areas):
o establishing baselines
o success cases
o tools, approaches
o capacity development
• Support to countries & stakeholders to:
o select appropriate indicators: water level,
biodiversity, peat extent (baselines, maps)
o restoration indicators (data to report progress):
o area restored
o projects
o finance …(needs, pledges and actual)
Idea: Set a science-based
target for peatland
restoration: How much?
By when?
www.decadeonrestoration.org

5. Building on science & practitioners’
experience
1. Science-based policies, planning and
decision-making
2. Direct feedback and improvement with data and
information from the field
3. Comprehensive design of monitoring and
reporting systems
4. Communities of practice: collaboration &
sharing across sectors and stakeholder groups
Source: FAO, 2020

6. Key resources for peatland monitoring,
assessment & early warning
Photo: Ronald Vernimmen

7. Useful resource: socio-economics?
FAO & WRI, 2019:
“The road to
restoration: A guide
to identifying
priorities and
indicators for
monitoring forest and
landscape
restoration”

8. Global platform “FERM” for restoration
monitoring
https://data.apps.fao.org/ferm

9. Main areas for future work
• Agricultural monitoring: paludiculture
and sustainable practices
• Early-warning, early action: Fire and
degradation alerts, and subsidence
applications for reducing risk:
○ Governance,
○ clear mandates, and
○ Chain of action: “What happens
at different levels, when there’s
an alert.”
• Support to the IPCC Wetland Guidelines
update.
Figure: IPCC Atlas displaying observed and projected climate
change information - here on extreme heat (2022).

10. My take-home messages
from today
1. Indonesia: Shared understanding on the status of restoration,
and what’s needed
2. Socio-economic piece of the puzzle: more emphasis
3. Support countries to develop holistic, robust and coordinated
ecosystem monitoring system to support action & achieving
results
→ Demonstrated climate action = Access to resources and
upscaling
4. Key aspect for tool development:
• Combining remote with field measurements
• Monitoring through project cycle

11. Thank you! Terima kasih!
Peatlands@fao.org

12. References
• FAO. 2020. Peatland mapping and monitoring Recommendations and technical overview. Rome, Italy.
http://www.fao.org/3/CA8200EN/ CA8200EN.pdf
• FAO resources on peatland monitoring:
https://trello.com/b/1RriK3jW/fao-peatland-monitoring-ghg-estimation
• FAO & WRI: FAO & WRI, 2019: “The road to restoration: A guide to identifying priorities and indicators for monitoring forest and
landscape restoration”
•
• IPCC 2013 Wetlands Supplement, 2014:
https://www.ipcc.ch/publication/2013-supplement-to-the-2006-ipcc-guidelines-for-national-greenhouse-gas-inventories-wetlands/
• UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration: https://www.decadeonrestoration.org
• IPCC, 2022: IPCC WGI Interactive Atlas https://interactive-atlas.ipcc.ch/
• The Global Soil Partnership: http://www.fao.org/global-soil-partnership
• Joosten. 2010. The global peatland Carbon dioxide picture. Peatland status and drainage related emissions in all countries of the
world: https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/draftpeatlandco2report.pdf

13. Overview: Monitoring objectives
and principles
• need peatland definition & map
• well informed, credible, robust,
inclusive targets
Agreed principles:
• wetness of restored peatlands; &
• stopped subsidence
Photo: CIFOR

14. Ensuring results
Photo by Elisabet Rams
• Validating progress of rewetting
• demonstrating impact benefits of
investment
• early-warning, early-action systems, and
• produce information for decisions,
reporting.
Integration of peatlands into national
Sustainable Development Goals,
climate targets & land use planning,
monitoring and reporting
Photo: CIFOR