Biodiversity Boreal Climate change Conservation planning Freshwater Indigenous partnerships Natural resource development Peatlands

The National Peatland Strategy: Implementation Opportunities for New Brunswick

Goodday, V., Tanguay, L., Radatus-Smith, N. & Harris, L

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To facilitate uptake of the National Peatland Strategy, opportunities for implementation at the federal level and in each province and territory have been identified. This document outlines opportunities for the province of New Brunswick.

Key points

• Canada’s peatlands are of global importance, storing over 150 billion tonnes of carbon.
• Canada's provinces and territories have the primary responsibility for properly stewarding these climate-critical ecosystems.
• New Brunswick is one of Canada’s major producers of horticultural peat and has very little law or policy in place to recognize and protect the other values and services of peatlands.
• Top opportunities for the Government of New Brunswick to achieve better outcomes for peatlands, and the communities and ecosystems that rely on them, include:
  • Collecting information on all peatlands in the province, regardless of size or peat-extraction potential.
  • Updating the peat extraction regulatory framework to account for the essential and irreplaceable ecological, climate, and cultural values and services of peatlands.
  • Establishing stronger protection pathways for peatlands, including updating the Wetlands Conservation Policy and integrating peatland protection objectives into climate policy.

The full strategy is available in both English and French.

Recommended citation

Goodday, V., Tanguay, L., Radatus-Smith, N. & Harris, L (2025). The National Peatland Strategy: Implementation Opportunities for New Brunswick. Wildlife Conservation Society Canada [WCS Canada]. https://doi.org/10.19121/2025.Report.52386.p06.en