Good practice Imported

Belarus National Peatland Rewetting Programme — 89,400 ha Restored (2007–2030)

Belarus · Minsk · See the Belarus profile · See the Minsk profile

Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 2% 87/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Belarus has rewetted 89,400 hectares of degraded peatlands since 2007—the largest UNDP-supported peatland restoration programme in Europe—cutting ~3 million tCO₂e over 20 years and adopting a national peatland law anchored in Paris Agreement commitments.

89,400 ha

Peatland rewetted (since 2007)

~3M tCO2e over 20 yr

Estimated emissions avoided

Details

Maturity: Established
Promoter: Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection of Belarus / UNDP Belarus
Period: 2007–2030
Keywords: government, conservation, climate, peatland, nature-based solutions

Context

Belarus has run the largest UNDP-supported peatland-restoration programme in Europe, rewetting degraded peatlands since 2007 and adopting a national peatland law anchored in its Paris Agreement commitments.

Results

The programme has rewetted 89,400 hectares of degraded peatlands, estimated to cut about 3 million tCO2e over 20 years.

Implementation

Implementation detail (cost, timeline, staffing, conditions for success) is not yet available for this practice.

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

Do you run this practice? Claim it — verified implementers get a public contact pathway and can propose corrections.

Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

C-NAPSE web research — accessed 2026-06-22
Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection of Belarus / UNDP Belarus — accessed 2026-06-22
UNDP Belarus Peatland Restoration Success — accessed 2026-06-22
PANORAMA Solution: Belarus Peatland Model — accessed 2026-06-22
UNDP: 12,000 ha Wetlands Project — accessed 2026-06-22
UNCCD Belarus Peatland Success — accessed 2026-06-22

Quality score: 87/100

How is this calculated?

Evidence: Observational / pre–post

Top 2% in this catalogue (645 scored practices)

Scores cluster high, so position within the catalogue is often more telling than the number alone.

Evaluation

Evaluated by C-NAPSE

Score profile — the dimensions behind the score — how it's computed

Carbon — sequestration / storage, evidenced2/3

The UNDP 'Wetlands' project phase (12,456 ha) is projected to avoid 3.2 million tCO₂e over 20 years per UNDP reporting; cumulative rewetting of 89,400 ha is documented but not independently market-verified.

Biodiversity — conservation / improvement, evidenced2/3

UNDP reports recovery of rare bog-specialist species in rewetted sites, but systematic pre/post biodiversity surveys with quantified outcomes are not publicly available.

Water & soil — retention, infiltration, erosion control3/3

Peatlands regulate water tables and reduce flooding; UNDP, Ramsar, and national programme documents explicitly cite hydrological regulation and water-quality improvement as primary co-benefits.

Fire resilience — risk reduction, evidenced3/3

Rewetting peatlands eliminates the primary precondition for peat fires; UNDP attributes near-elimination of peat-fire events in restored areas, and fire prevention is cited as a core justification in national policy documents.

Governance, certification & transferability3/3

A 2015 national peatland law, multi-year UNDP/GEF institutional support, Paris Agreement reporting, Ramsar Convention commitments, and international knowledge-sharing with Baltic and Central Asian states demonstrate strong multi-level governance.

Cite this

Evidoria. Belarus National Peatland Rewetting Programme — 89,400 ha Restored (2007–2030). Persistent ID: 522fda91-b31d-4450-934a-7e594b87e0f1.

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