On June 16, 2020, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)—in partnership with South Korea—announced that it will support peatland rewetting to help restore these vital ecosystems in Gomel Oblast, Belarus.
Deputy Head of the Biological and Landscape Diversity Office of the Belarusian Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Ministry Andrei Kuzmich made the announcement.
Peatland in Belarus prior to restoration. (Same site after restoration appears at top of page.)
“The project provides for rewetting of peatlands in Khoiniki District and Kalinkovichi District of Gomel Oblast in 2020. The work will be carried out with support of the South Korean government and the UN Convention to Combat Desertification in line with the second stage of the project ‘Restoration of Drained Peatlands in Belarus’,” Kuzmich stated.
“We have successfully signed the relevant agreement and got down to the national registration of the project, right ahead of the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought,” he added.
The main activities under the project are set to be finished by the end on 2020.
Plans are in place to restore at least 4500 acres of peatlands.
In 2018-2019, Belarus carried out rewetting of more than 2500 acres of peatlands in the southeast of Mogilev Oblast (Cherikov District and Kostyukovichi District) as part of the Restoration of Drained Peatlands in Belarus project.
Ecological restoration of drained peatlands via rewetting helps prevent peat fires, improve local environmental situation, and create conditions for reviving populations of protected and/or economically valuable plant and animal species.
Photos courtesy of UNCCD.