Moscow Region Peatland Rewetting Programme (Russia)

Following catastrophic peat fires around Moscow in summer 2010 that produced toxic smog blamed for thousands of excess deaths and forced a state of emergency, the Moscow Province Administration partnered with Wetlands International Russia, the Michael Succow Foundation, Greifswald University and the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Forest Science to rewet fire-prone peatlands in the Shatura district and Meshchera lowland between autumn 2010 and 2013.

77 drained, fire-prone peatlands covering 73,049.84 ha were rewetted to reduce wildfire risk and greenhouse gas emissions from oxidising peat.

Peer-reviewed multispectral satellite monitoring (Sirin et al.) documented a significant reduction in the number and burnt area of peat fires at rewetted sites in subsequent fire-hazard seasons. Using IPCC default emission factors, researchers estimated a conservative reduction of over 36,000 tCO2eq/year, with programme-wide estimates reaching approximately 320,000 tCO2eq/year, though the authors caution these are model-based estimates rather than direct flux measurements.

The programme's methodology has informed Russia's national climate reporting on organic-soil emissions to the UNFCCC, though researchers note many other fire-risk peatlands elsewhere in Russia still await rewetting.