United Nations Environment Assembly Resolution 4/16 “Conservation and sustainable management of peatlands” Summary Report to 30 June 2025

Adopted in March 2019 by all UN Member States, UNEA Resolution 4/16 on the "Conservation and sustainable management of peatlands" calls on the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), governments, key actors and stakeholders to elevate the protection, restoration and sustainable management of peatlands worldwide. This summary report documents the progress made by member states, UNEP and the Global Peatlands Initiative (GPI) members in delivering on that mandate through to 30 June 2025. It presents some of the reported key achievements, impacts, lessons learned, and recommendations that have emerged from its implementation.

Since 2019, UNEP, GPI members and our partners have achieved significant milestones, including the flagship Global Peatlands Assessment - the first comprehensive inventory of global peatland extent, status and value, which quantified that degraded peatlands release approximately 2 gigatons of CO₂-equivalent per year, representing 4% of global anthropogenic emissions. The assessment's findings have directly shaped national policy, from Peru incorporating peatland targets into its climate pledge to the EU adopting binding peatland restoration targets under the Nature Restoration Law, and Germany committing close to €2 billion for rewetting degraded peatlands. Alongside this, new partnerships and regional initiatives, including the European Peatlands Initiative, the Patagonia Peatlands Initiative, and expanded cooperation in the Congo Basin, have helped to accelerate activation through enhanced cross-sectoral and inter-disciplinary collaboration.

The report sets out a forward-looking agenda of recommendations for policymakers and practitioners, including aligning sectoral policies to eliminate contradictory provisions, strengthening legal protections against drainage and peat extraction, scaling up blended-finance mechanisms, empowering Indigenous Peoples and local communities through co-management frameworks, and completing national peatland inventories to guide evidence-based decision-making.

Supporting annexes to the report are available upon request at: unep-ecosystems-gpi@un.org