Peatland Justice is a two-year campaign led by RE-PEAT, running from early 2024 to late 2025
It is a co-creative narrative shifting project, working to seek out and amend various forms of peatland injustice. Over two years, we delve into trade and finance of peatlands in Europe as areas where peatland injustice resides.
TRADE
Because peat extraction for potting soils is a big driver of peatland destruction. 80% of global peat extraction occurs in Europe, and extraction causes the highest number of emissions per hectare, compared to other land-uses such as forestry and agriculture.
finance
Because in order to transform a system where people’s livelihoods are intertwined with ecological destruction and operations are prioritised based on profitability, a financial framework rooted in justice is a necessity.
Follow up on your peat knowledge by clicking on the images!
Through these activities, Peatland Justice aims to support a just transition from unsustainable peat products being traded within the EU and contribute to functioning and long-lasting peatland financing systems that serve both peatlands and local communities. Peatland injustices are not restricted to trade and finance. In the future, we wish to expand this campaign to the areas of access to land, knowledge, health, and housing. We are open to collaborators on these themes!
Our participatory research includes focus groups, interviews and workshops. Our findings will be transformed and communicated through an online and physical deep map of European trade networks as well as various creative communication means. We are setting our sights on retailers as the primary campaign target, calling on them to phase out their peat-packed potting soil and only sell peat-free alternatives. This should set a wide-spread increase in use of peat-free soils into action. Lastly, we will advocate for our proposed framework for justice in trade and finance of peatlands in Europe at national and EU level.
Our project partners are Wetlands International - European Association, Climate Catalyst, and Transnational Institute
Peatland Justice is made possible with the financial support of Allianz Foundation, Andrea von Braun Foundation, Lush, Patagonia, the Collective Imagination Practice Community, and the Landscape Research Group.
