A study conducted as part of the LIFE REstore project, “Responsible management and sustainable use of degraded peatlands in Latvia”, implemented by the Nature Conservation Agency and partner organisations, has quite shockingly revealed a significant difference between GHG (greenhouse gas) emission factors and those established internationally; specifically, actual emissions in Latvia turned out to be, on average, two times lower than those previously calculated. For example, the difference in CO2 emissions for peat extraction sites is 60%, for agricultural land – 40–55%, for forests – 50–60%, and for berry plantations – as much as 80%. The largest discrepancies between the CO2 emission factors determined in the study and international ones are for permanent grasslands, afforestation, and the cultivation of blueberries and cranberries.

Incredibly, this study has proven that the largest source of carbon emissions in the management of organic soils is agricultural land – the conversion of arable land for the cultivation of vegetables or grain, and permanent grasslands. It is no surprise that these emission differences have emerged, as the internationally established factors are based on studies conducted in France and Germany; however, the climate and levels of environmental pollution in those countries differ from the situation in Latvia, meaning that emissions from managed organic soils here have been significantly overestimated.