Extension of Agricultural land use in Peatland regions
FAOSTAT Emissions – Agriculture, Cultivation of Organic Soils, available at: http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/GV
Specified by peatland region:
Asia
By far dominant are the areas used in South East Asia (Indonesia ca. 4,8 million ha and Malaysia (0,7 million ha). In these countries 85-90% is used to grow a wide variety of crops.
In the vast steppe area of Mongolia ca. 1 million ha is used as pasture (grassland).
Europe
Large areas are found in Russia (1,9 million ha), Germany (1,1 million ha), Belarus (1,4 million ha), Poland ( 1 million ha) and Ukraine (0,65 million ha).
In many Western European countries like Germany, Poland and the Netherlands, the majority of peatlands are used for agricultural purposes and only a small fraction of the original undisturbed peatlands were not drained or restored after rewetting.
The area of agricultural peatlands ids decreasing steadily in recent decades for economic reasons and for restoring biodiversity.
Northern America
The principal crops are vegetables, also cranberries and wild rice as well as forage crops. Over 230.000 ha of fen peatlands are cultivated in the Florida Everglades, including large areas of sugarcane and rice. Other crops produced in the USA include vegetables, grass sods and cranberries.
(Joosten & Clarke, 2002, Wise Use of Mires and Peatlands)
Southern America
In the cited FAO survey the total area of peatlands in Southern America used for agriculture is estimated at ca. 0,7 million ha ( or 7.000 km2 ) of which almost 80% as grassland in humid regions of Argentina and Falkland/Malvinas.
Africa
By FAO the total area of peatlands in African countries used for agriculture is estimated at ca. 1,4 million ha ( or 14.000 km2 ) of which 50% for cropland and 50% for grassland.
