Península Mitre Peatland Protected Area (Tierra del Fuego, Argentina)

After more than 30 years of advocacy, on 6 December 2022 the Tierra del Fuego Provincial Legislature unanimously approved the creation of the Península Mitre Natural Protected Area, covering roughly 10,341 km² (about 3,500 km² of land and 6,800 km² of sea). The designation combines a provincial natural park, a natural forest reserve, a natural monument, a coastal reserve and a multiple-use reserve.

Surveys led by the Tierra del Fuego Environment Secretariat with CADIC-CONICET, WCS Argentina and the National Parks Administration found the peninsula holds roughly 2,400 km² of peatland, much of it more than 6 metres deep and several thousand years old, accumulating at roughly 1mm per year. Since over 95% of Argentina's peatlands lie in Tierra del Fuego, mostly within Península Mitre, researchers describe the reserve as the country's single largest concentrated carbon stock, alongside globally significant breeding and feeding habitat for Magellanic penguins, southern sea lions and other marine mammals and seabirds.

The December 2022 law establishes the legal boundary and management categories, but a detailed management plan, a verified carbon inventory and a peatland-specific carbon-crediting standard were still pending as of the most recent reporting; ongoing peat extraction for horticultural and industrial use elsewhere on the island remains a live pressure the new reserve does not directly regulate.