Tropical Peatland Climate Resilience Transforming Governance of Climate Risks for Poverty Reduction in Indonesia, Peru and the Congo Basin

Emissions from damaged peatlands account for 5 per cent of the global carbon budget, with the majority coming from tropical peatlands. There are significant governance challenges associated with restoring damaged peatlands but 80 per cent of current research is from natural science. This project therefore brings together social scientists specialising in environmental governance with natural scientists. It develops novel governance actions that can transform the resilience of poor and marginalised groups to better manage climate risks in the peatlands of Indonesia, Peru and the Congo Basin; areas that represent the majority of tropical peatlands area and emissions. This research will build social science and interdisciplinary capacity in the international tropical peatland community, leading to the co-production of an interdisciplinary climate resilience research agenda; and develop innovative governance approaches that integrate social science on ecosystem markets with natural science and engineering technologies for peatland restoration, to transform governance and reduce vulnerability to climate risks.

Principal Investigator: Dr Mark Reed, Scotland's Rural College