The 2nd of February is the official #WorldWetlandsDay celebrated by global environmental organisations and institutions similar to the UN. At Save the Orangutan, we could not agree more in its emphasis on the valuable peatlands covering approximately 3% of our globe. This type of land includes the peat forest in Mawas in Borneo we focus our efforts on.
Facts about peatlands:
Peatlands cover only 3% of the globe but store double the CO2 than all forests combined.
Degradation of and forest fires in peatlands such as peat forests is responsible for almost 10% of the world’s total emission of greenhouse gasses.
World Wetlands Day always falls on the 2nd of February marking “the Convention on Wetlands”, also known as the Ramsar (Iran) convention, which was adopted by the world society in 1971. However, the day was not ‘celebrated’ as an official awareness day until 1997. Since its establishment, the convention has emphasised the importance of peatlands to the existence and diversity of wildlife and to the climate in the long term.
Learn more facts about peatlands in the UN Environment video on Peatlands #WorldWetlandsDay2019 on Facebook here >>
We have focused our efforts on peat forests since 2007
At Save the Orangutan, we have worked to protect and restore peat forests in Mawas in Borneo since 2007. Covering 309,000 hectares, Mawas is about twice the size of London and home to more than 2500 wild orangutans. Read more about our efforts in Mawas here >>
