Raisa Mäkipää: “Climate targets will be difficult to achieve without reducing soil emissions from peatlands”
Research Professor Raisa Mäkipää has been studying how the use of fields and forests could reduce emissions. She hopes that understanding will spread among Finns that emissions from peat fields are similar to those from fossil fuels.
Research Professor at Natural Resources Institute Finland and Vice Chair of the Finnish Climate Change Panel Raisa Mäkipää is a forest ecologist and soil scientist by training. In particular, she brings to the Panel knowledge of the land-use sector and associated greenhouse gas emissions. Her research has focused on topics such as biodiversity and carbon and nitrogen cycling in forests.
“One of the areas I am exploring is how we can strengthen carbon sinks in forests. And my latest major projects have produced proposals for emission reduction solutions.”
Mäkipää also appreciates the Panel’s solutions-oriented approach.
“The Finnish Climate Change Panel supports decision-makers, but at the same time it addresses unresolved questions and communicates to the general public on how the direction of climate policy can be influenced on a research-led basis.”
Drainage of peatlands a major source of emissions
Mäkipää is concerned that there is insufficient progress in the implementation of emission reductions in the land use sector – even though relatively cost-effective methods are available. The land use sector comprises agricultural land, forestry and other land uses.
“We have even seen an increase in soil emissions from fields and peatlands, and the land use sector has become a source of emissions. The remaining carbon sink capacity of Finland’s forests has been reduced to the point where it is mainly now found in northern Finland and in Metsähallitus’s forests.”
Mäkipää hopes that emission reduction measures will be implemented swiftly, especially in peatlands, which are the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions from the land use sector in Finland.
“People simply do not have sufficient understanding of how important peatlands are. Emissions from peat are similar to those from fossil fuels. Peat is carbon that has long been out of the cycle and that is now being released into the atmosphere from drained peatlands that are being used for forestry and agriculture.”
According to Mäkipää, emissions from peatlands could be reduced by restoring drained peatlands to wetter levels than their current state and watering fields. Farmers could be encouraged to reduce emissions and deliver environmental benefits with incentives such as agricultural subsidies.
Despite the slow pace of emission reductions in the land use sector, Mäkipää also sees positive signs on the climate front. Effective mechanisms, such as emissions trading, have been put in place to reduce emissions. At the same time, citizens and stakeholders, such as farmers, have become more willing to make the right choices for the climate, and factors such as clean energy solutions have reduced consumers’ carbon footprint.
“We have succeeded in reducing emissions rapidly in areas where we have set proper targets and provided financial incentives for emission reductions.”
Nature management on a summer cabin island
In her free time, Mäkipää enjoys nature. In winter, she skis and in summer, she relaxes at her cabin on an island in Heinola.
“On the island, I engage in nature management, restoration and biodiversity conservation on a small scale, for example by leaving dead trees standing to decay where they are. I have also stopped supporting peat production and lugging peat bags to the island by switching the dry material used at the outhouse to a mixture of sawdust and forest debris that accumulates when raking.”
“This alone won’t save the world, but it does improve my own well-being and make the island a more pleasant place for other species, not just humans.”