The so-called “Ring of Fire” is a mineral resource region located in the far north region of Ontario, Canada, about 1,000 kilometers north of Toronto. Also part of the Hudson Bay Lowland, the Ring of Fire is part of the largest peatland in North America, and the second largest near-continuous expanse of peatland in the world, containing between 30 to 35 billion tonnes of carbon.
WCS Canada — a non-profit organization of scientists who have been working in northern Ontario since 2004 to support the conservation of fish and wildlife, freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems in the region, ecosystem services related to storage of water and carbon, and threats like contaminants — will be releasing an information hub on this region, including new maps, more details on valued species and ecosystems, an archive of news articles, pathways to take conservation action, and more.
Named by a team of mining executives and prospecting geologists in 2007, the Ring of Fire has been defined by the size and shape of the mineral deposits (and the permitted mineral claims) covering up to 5,000 square kilometres. This development could turn into a mega-project: a large-scale, complex venture that typically costs $1 billion or more, takes many years to build, involves multiple public and private stakeholders, is transformational, and impacts millions of people.
The peat soils in this landscape — of a type often called ‘muskeg’ in Canada — are 2m to 4m deep and very old. This vital carbon store, however, is slated for massive disruption and development by roads, mining companies, and the looming threat of climate change, with the province ready to deploy the bulldozers across the north to re-create Alberta’s Oilsands in Ontario.
But these peatlands within the Ring of Fire region alone may contain around 450 million tonnes of carbon. Put another way, this is 1.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2), two times Canada’s total reported greenhouse gas emissions in 2019.
Because it took thousands of years for the peat to accumulate, if the peatlands in the Hudson Bay Lowland are destroyed or damaged, the carbon lost will not be recovered within our lifetimes and the greenhouse gases released to the atmosphere will make climate warming worse. Damaging these intact peatlands will also put the targets set out in national and international climate change agreements in jeopardy. While peatlands can be restored to turn them from carbon sources to carbon sinks, the carbon lost to disturbance cannot be recovered. Protecting and sustainably managing these peatlands must be the priority to safeguard the ecosystem services they provide and to avoid largescale greenhouse gas emissions by keeping the valuable irrecoverable carbon stored there, wet and in the ground.
Dianna Kopansky, Global Peatlands Initiative Coordinator at UNEP, commented: “In the effort to protect peatlands and the biodiversity and carbon they harbor, detailed information and collaboration across sectors and stakeholders are two of the most crucial elements. This new hub by WCS can serve as a focal point to facilitate the sharing of knowledge and action between many actors interested and involved in the Ring of Fire and thus contribute to the crucial protection and sustainable management of one of the planet’s richest peatland complexes.”
WCS Canada also works with a number of First Nation communities whose homelands include the Hudson Bay Lowland to support their research and monitoring priorities and vision for their homelands, particularly First Nations protected areas. We have been engaged in government-led impact assessment and land use planning processes affecting the species, ecosystems, and communities in Northern Ontario since 2004.
This release is part of the Global Peat Press Project (GP3) campaign, bringing together international partners to highlight the importance of peatlands as vulnerable but valuable ecosystems. It is a coordinated media outreach from the UNEP’s Global Peatlands Initiative (GPI) and the North Pennines AONB Partnership to promote the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030). It was conceived to raise awareness and enthusiasm about the role of peatlands in climate action in the run-up to the UNFCCC COP26 in November, and has now pivoted to focus on the vital importance of peatlands for nature, aiming to build momentum and interest in advance of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) COP15 in April next year. A relay of stories from peatland projects worldwide, GP3 started with the UK, as the host of COP26, which took place in Glasgow, Scotland.