What are forest reference emission levels (FREL) for wetlands?
Channel: Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR)
Date: 2023-03-14

When it comes to keeping greenhouse gases under wraps, the world’s wetlands punch well above their weight. Peatlands, for example, store more carbon than all other vegetation types combined and mangroves can sequester more than four times as much carbon as tropical forests. When they’re destroyed or degraded, that carbon escapes into the atmosphere, accelerating climate change.
There’s still little research on wetlands and their emission-stashing capacities compared to many other forest ecosystems. Knowledge and information on a more accurate picture of wetlands’ contribution is needed. Since 2019, CIFOR has been conducting research on improving the transparency, accuracy, completeness, consistency, and comparability of Forest Reference Emission Level (FREL) particularly in wetland ecosystems.
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