Karukinka Natural Park Hosts Venice Agreement on Peatlands Organizing Committee

Beneath windswept skies and surrounded by the deep breath of the peatlands, the majority of the Venice Agreement (VA) on Peatlands Organizing Committee (OC) gathered this month at Karukinka Natural Park, Tierra del Fuego, Chile, hosted by WCS Chile. 

After a long-haul journey and a smooth crossing of the Magellan Strait, Leonard Akwany (Ecofinder Kenya), Antonieta Eguren and Nicole Püschel (WCS Chile), Suza Husee (Michael Succow Foundation/Greifswald Mire Centre, Germany), Miguel Geraldes (W-Replay, Portugal), and Camila Marambio (Para la Naturaleza, Puerto Rico) reunited with Fernanda Olivares (Hach Saye, Tierra del Fuego), coming together in person to reconnect with the land where this vision was first dreamt—and from where it was later carried to Venice in 2022. 

Time was shared in discussions, meals, walks, and presence—with each other, the rangers, and the Pakeliah Peatland, under the care of Hach Saye. “This isn’t just logistics; it’s an eco-relational practice,” one committee member reflected. 

This in-person gathering built upon the December 2025 online meeting and reinforced the organizing committee relay ideated during the 2024 Biennial International Workshop in Torres Vedras, Portugal, where it was decided that the founding OC members (Eguren, Marambio and Püschel) would accompany the following OC members (Olivares, Geraldes, Husse, Akwany, Cisca Devereux (Global Peatland Initiative, UNEP, Kenya) and Bobbi (RE-PEAT) in the process of organizing the 2026 Workshops. The Founding OC members emphasized the need for thoughtful facilitation and agenda curation to support the Venice Agreement on Peatlands as a living community platform. 

Objectives for 2026 VA workshops 

As the VA prepares for its 2026 Biennial International Workshop in Papyrus Peatlands of Kisumu, Kenya (from June 2 – World Peatlands Day to June 6), the OC articulated the core objectives of the upcoming workshop: 

• Showcasing: Africa’s diverse and vital peatlands, while strengthening peatland networks worldwide.

• Agreeing: On the evolving governance of the VA and the infrastructure needed to support it.

• Actioning: Reciprocity commitments to host peatlands, with protocols led by local stewards.

• Creating: A Living Menu of How-Tos—practical, grounded, and values-aligned responses to the VA’s shared priorities. 

Other fruits from the gathering included: 

• Detecting transversal themes such as decoloniality, the Rights of Nature, and language justice—threads that weave through and ground the VA’s collective work. 

• Developing Governance Guidelines to be shared with the broader VA community, ensuring transparency, continuity, and care in how decisions are made and held. 

• Strategizing the integration of the Underground Workshops, so that the deep, systematizing work does not dilute the vitality of the voices and stories it holds. 

• Brewing early ideas for intergenerational engagement, imagining how children and youth might walk alongside the VA with playfulness, wonder, and responsibility. 

There was much laughter, logistical detail, creative sparks, and the kind of awe that only peatland rainbows can offer. 

As the Indigenous saying goes: Today is a good day to die—but it would be nice to live. And if today is the day, at least we gathered well. 

The Venice Agreement on Peatlands continues to evolve as a metabolic, relational commitment to protect local peatlands globally by connecting land, people, and the fragile yet powerful futures that pulse beneath our feet. 

The countdown to Kisumu and worldwide underground Venice Agreement on Peatlands workshops 2026 has begun. Early registration opens soon. Stay tuned.