Co-hosted by the UN Environment Programme and Peru’s Ministry of the Environment, the Global Peatlands Initiative members and partners will meet in Peru from 30 June to 4 July 2026. The 67-member strong Global Peatlands Initiative (GPI) gathers in Latin America for the first time ever as a South South collaboration and exchange meeting to shine the spotlight on the work of Peru through the years in the GPI partnership to protect, restore and sustain their critical peatland water-towers in the Andes, the water source for Lima and the Amazon River that builds through the lowland peatland forests and stretches across the Amazon Basin.
Globally, peatlands cover just 3% of the planet's land surface, yet they hold twice as much carbon than all the world's forest biomass combined, and sustain biodiversity, livelihoods, water security and climate stability.
Peatlands are diverse, from the “aguajales’ of the Peruvian Amazon to the “bofedales” of the high Andes, from Colombia to the rainforests of the Congo Basin, Indonesia and South-East Asia, from the Mongolian steppe and the Far North tundra to Patagonia, peatlands are found in almost every country and across every major climate zone on Earth. But today, peatlands are under unprecedented pressure and degrading in 177 countries, putting one of the planet's overlooked yet globally vital ecosystems at risk.
Under the theme “Peatlands as livelihoods and the conditions for their conservation and sustainable management, the meeting will showcase the latest in peatland science, practice, policy and finance. This meeting will serve as a key platform to deepen the science-policy interface, advance South-South and Triangular Cooperation, and step up action towards the conservation, restoration and sustainable management of peatlands worldwide.
Key information
- Dates:
- Technical sessions: Lima, Peru, from 30 June to 2 July 2026
- Field Trips: National reserve (3-4 July by invitation only) and wetland trip (3 July for GPI meeting participants)
- Format: In-person, with online participation for GPI members
- Hosts: UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Ministry of the Environment, Peru (MINAM)
