India, Feb. 18 -- A recent study has cautioned that peatlands, crucial carbon reservoirs, are severely underprotected, and their ongoing destruction could jeopardise climate change goals.

Peatlands, which occupy only 3 per cent of the Earth's surface, hold 600 billion tonnes of carbon - surpassing the carbon stored in all the world's forest biomass combined. However, merely 17 per cent of peatlands are safeguarded worldwide. Specifically, only 11 per cent of boreal peatlands are protected, compared to 27 per cent of temperate and tropical peatlands.

The figure is in stark contrast to the levels of protection afforded to other at-risk ecosystems like mangroves (42 per cent), saltmarshes (50 per cent) and tropical forests (38 per cent)....