The biologist explained the need to restore the marshes

Flooding of swamps leads to an increase in methane emissions, but the effectiveness of this work to combat climate change is still very high due to the neutralization of CO2 emissions, Anna Romanovskaya, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, director of the Institute of Global Climate and Ecology, told Izvestia.

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"Globally, CO2 emissions from drained peatlands account for up to 14-18% of the total estimated balance of anthropogenic emissions and greenhouse gas uptake from terrestrial ecosystems," she said.

With reference to the National Cadastre of Anthropogenic Emissions from Sources and removals by sinks of greenhouse gases of the Russian Federation, the expert reported that in 1990-2023, greenhouse gas emissions from drained peat bogs in Russia amounted to more than 40 million tons of CO2 equivalent. This is approximately 3.5% of the balance of anthropogenic greenhouse gas fluxes in Russia's managed ecosystems.

In this sense, watering marshes is a good measure to combat climate change, even though there is an increase in methane emissions, which is also a greenhouse gas, the editorial said.

"Methane has a relatively short residence time in the atmosphere — "only" 20 years or a little less, whereas CO2 has more than 100 years. Therefore, the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions "outweighs," Romanovskaya summed up.

Read more in the Izvestia article:

Dangerous without a quagmire: why are swamps being restored in Russia