wise use of mires and peatlands - Peatland Ecology Research Group

VALUES AND FUCTIONS OF MIRES AND PEATLANDS91of genetic and other biodiversity to evolveand to adapt to changing conditions isimportant, as it may provide future humanitywith new genetic and ecosystem resources.The adaptations of peatland organisms toexcess water and lack of nutrients aresignificant in this respect; they make possiblerelatively high productivity under extremeconditions and low intensity management 307 .The future archive function of peatlands isalso of special importance: it is guaranteedby continued peat accumulation. Culturalarchives only record what contemporarycivilisation thinks will be important in future.Future generations will, however, requireinformation from the perspective of thatfuture, not from that of the time when theinformation is recorded: nobody records whatdoes not change, and when a change hastaken place it is difficult to reconstruct theformer situation. This implies that requiredinformation often cannot be found in culturalarchives and that one has to resort to naturalarchives 308 . Mires are therefore of utmostimportance as systematic, unbiased devicesrecording information on a changing society,one that our successors will want to look atfrom a different perspective to that oftoday 309 .3.4.6 The values of conservation andeconomicsThis leads finally to the consideration of“conservation” and “economic” values,which most often feature in environmentalconflicts 310 . These values are derivationsfrom and combinations of variousinstrumental values, and, in the case ofconservation, also of different approachesto intrinsic values. They are often expressedas complex concepts. Employment, forexample, represents income 311 which makes itpossible to fulfil various needs and wants. Italso leads to a wide variety of social-amenitybenefits, which may be even more important.Similarly “conservation” involves a widerange of motives with respect to instrumentaland intrinsic values, as becomes apparentwhen considering the motives for creatingprotected areas 312 , e.g. for assigning RamsarListed Sites (Table 3/21). For a systematicanalysis of Wise Uses of mires and peatlandsit is necessary to be aware of these complexrelationships. Table 3/22 gives an overviewof the relationships between value types andconservation and economic values, andillustrates that the same value type may oftenoperate in favour of both conservation andexploitation.Ramsar Listed Sites Number % of sites Ha % of Ramsarwith peatSites AreaTotal Ramsar Sites 1 028 — 78 195 293 100Sites with peat 268 100 27 213 484 35Sites with peat 118 29 7 883 161 10with recorded threats(peat extraction,drainage, mining, etc.)Table 3/21: Ramsar Listed Sites containing peat as at June 2000 313 .