Geographic Distribution
Peatlands are areas of land with a naturally accumulated layer of peat. Peatlands are found in at least 175 countries and cover around 4 million km² or 3% of the world’s land area. In Europe, peatlands extend to ca. 515,000 km².
Peat deposits are found in many places around the world, including northern Europe, and North America, principally in Canada and the northern United States. Here, too, occur some of the worlds largest peatlands, including The West Siberian Lowland, the Hudson Bay Lowland, and the Mackenzie River Valley. The amount of peat is smaller in the southern hemisphere, partly because there is less land, yet South America (Southern Patagonia/Tierra del Fuego) has one of the world's largest wetlands, the vast Magellanic Moorland, with extensive peat dominated landscapes. Peat can be found in New Zealand, Kerguelen, and the Falkland Islands, Indonesia (Kalimantan (Sungai Putri, Danau Siawan, Sungai Tolak, Rasau Jaya (West Kalimantan), and Sumatra). Indonesia has more tropical peat land and mangrove forests than any other nation on earth, but Indonesia is losing wetlands by 100,000 hectares per year.
Approximately 60% of the world's wetlands are peat. About 7% of total peatlands have been exploited for agriculture and forestry. Under proper conditions, peat will turn into lignite coal over geologic periods of time.
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