This Saturday at Peat-Fest 2021, the ‘Save Polesia’ and the ‘Polesia – Wilderness without borders’ projects will showcase their commitment to protect Europe’s Amazon. The 24-hour long online festival is ‘dedicated to facilitating conversation about peatlands and larger ecological questions’. The free event is organised, for the second time, by a youth-led group RE-PEAT, in celebration of World Peatland Day on June 2nd. It will include a diverse range of discussions, talks, brainstorming sessions, music, workshops, games and more.
Conservationists will be among the speakers at the global event. At 15:15-16:00 (CET) on May 29th Elleni Vendras, coordinator of ‘Polesia – Wilderness without borders’, will outline the project’s efforts to expand protected areas and improve their management – which includes rewetting drained mires and peatlands. In addition, conservationists plan to nominate part of Polesia as a World Heritage site to improve international recognition of this crucial landscape.
Helen Byron, international coordinator of the ‘Save Polesia’ partnership, will then talk about the threat of the planned E40 waterway, and what the lack of proper planning and assessments for this transboundary infrastructure project would mean for Europe’s largest wetland wilderness. Finally, Volha Kaskevich, coordinator of the campaign in Belarus will share insights into the work in Belarus.
The general programme consists not only of live talks and discussions where everybody is invited to exchange ideas and knowledge about peatlands – the festival also includes an online exhibition with photos, collections and short films.
Take a look at the exciting line-up:
This year’s Peat-Fest theme is the inbetween. The organisers aim to draw inspiration from peat – ‘an ecosystem that continually demonstrates how dynamic the inbetween really is’ – and highlight the similarities to the current times of change and transformation that many of us are going through.
Peatlands are not quite land and not quite water, they are not quite dead and not quite alive.
Peat-Fest 2021
Listen to the Polesia talks on 29th May 2021, 15:15-16:00 (CET) by signing up for the festival here.
Additional information:
- Read about Almany mires – a huge complex of untouched mires and peatbogs that was expanded by 10,000 hectares earlier this year
- Visit our petition page and sign to call on governments to cease construction and properly assess the project
- Learn more about the threats from the E40 waterway and read our factsheet ‘Polesia under threat – How a new waterway could destroy Polesia’s natural environment’
- Find out more about Polesia and read our factsheet ‘About Polesia – A unique wilderness of global importance’
* Top image shows moss typically found in peatlands © Daniel Rosengren