Why land degradation and drought are important topics for Belarus? The warming and prolonged vegetative period caused by climate change bring new opportunities for agriculture, forestry and local people, but also demonstrate the vulnerability of the land and the need for urgent actions to preserve land productivity.

No, this is not African or Arabian deserts. This is the Republic of Belarus, a country in the center of Europe with a typical Сentral European climate and 40% of area covered by forests.

Belarusians affectionately call their country "blue -eyed" for its large number of lakes, more than 10,000.

According to the Institute of Nature Management of the Belarusian Academy of Sciences, due to increased pace of climate change agro-climatic zones have been shifting northwards 19 km per year.

Under business-as-usual scenario in 30 years the whole territory of Belarus will be covered by fundamentally altered agro-climatic zones. There is still time to adapt to the changing climate and the key measure is to protect and keep the available moisture.

The consequences of climate change have already affected Belarus. The average temperature in January 2020 was 1.1 degrees Celsius, 5.5 degrees Celsius above the climatic norm. This 2qw the warmest January in the history of weather observations in the country. In the south of the country, Belarusian Paliessie, is a unique wetland landscape, a home of many endangered species of birds and animals. Paliessie mires are transit corridor that offers safe and abundant feeding grounds for many migratory birds. The region is also a source of important cultural heritage for local people including dialect and local traditions. In Paliessie, the cultural self-identity of local populations is closely interlinked with nature, landscapes, mires and the provided by ecosystems, such as fresh water, timber, berries, mushrooms. Today, large parts of Paliessie are affected by the impacts of climate change such as more frequent droughts and water scarcity.

At the midst of planting season in April 2020, Homieĺ (Gomel), the southern region of the country had a record low amount of rain - only 7.9 mm, which is 19% of the norm. Last year, precipitation in this area was not much higher – just 12 mm. Increase in forest fires has been recorded during the last three years, with 17 cases of fires in 2017 and 121 fires in 2019. At the same time, about 45% of Homieĺ region is within radioactive zone contaminated by Chornobyl catastrophe. Combustion of peatlands located in the radioactive zone represents a particular threat to public health since it increases the transfer of radionuclides to the healthy land.

To address these challenges, the Government of Belarus, represented by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection of the Republic of Belarus together with the UN Convention to Combat Desertification joined efforts in 2018 to stop further land degradation.

Since 2018, the UNCCD has been supporting the efforts of the Government of Belarus on rehabilitation of peatlands through the Greening Drylands Partnership, an initiative funded by the Government of South Korea.

Between 2018-2019, in the framework of the Greening Drylands Partnership about 1000 ha of degraded peatlands were rewetted in Mahilioŭ region, in the south-east of Belarus. Sustainability of the rehabilitation measures is grounded in the strong partnership built between local authorities, forestry department and local community.

For the second phase of the project, the focus is on Homieĺ region. Two years project executed by the local NGO Green Economy will restore at least 2000 hectares of drained peatlands and improve monitoring, forecast and early warning of fires on peatlands. Jointly with UNDP Belarus which already accumulated vast experience in peatland rehabilitation in the country the project will assess GHG emission/removals from rewetted peatlands using the internationally recognized methodology. This calculation will be the basis for justifying the effectiveness of donor and national investments in peatland restoration. With correct application of technology, in about 10 years the hydrological regime can be restored in the vicinity of two cities – Chojniki and Kalinkavičy – reducing the risk of increasing forest fires. The project will contribute to reducing the impacts of climate change on the sustainable economic development and to protecting well-being of the population. The project aims to improve the living standards of the population in the Homieĺ region by developing local capacity for sustainable management and use of natural resources through the restoration of drained peatlands.

The residents of the affected area have shared the following concerns: "We thought 2018 was a disaster, but now it happened again and even worse. Last year, it was hot and no rain but we needed water to irrigate every day. Where are we supposed to get it from – wells, ponds, river were getting shallow and dry. We don’t expect anything good this year either. There was no snow in the winter, the rivers didn’t freeze, there was no high water during the spring. We have never experienced this before. We thought climate change happens somewhere else, but it’s happening right here, bringing droughts, fires and poor harvests".
Such weather anomalies have become common, leading to decrease in soil moisture and affecting the productivity of agricultural land by blowing away the fertile upper layer of the soil every dry planting season. The consequences for the entire country and the livelihoods of local communities are significant.

Agricultural production is an important sector of Belarus economy, accounting for 16% of the country's GDP. The exports of food products and agricultural raw materials exceed $5 billion (more than 16% of the total exports of the Republic of Belarus). About 22% of the population lives in rural areas and 9% are employed in agriculture, forestry and fisheries.

For natural ecosystems and particularly wetlands, climate change means irreversible adverse effects. Scientists call Belarusian mires the "lungs" of Europe – 12.3 %of the country is covered by peatlands (4.2 % - by natural mires), compared to the 3.4% world average. One of the main functions of mires in Belarus is to regulate and maintain a favorable regional hydrological regime, so that the natural ecosystems can function sustainably and provide reliable water supply for rivers and lakes by accumulating fresh water reserves (more than 7 billion cubic meters).

As a result of climate change, peat mining, drainage of mires and intensive agricultural development of drained land have created significant areas of disturbed degraded peatlands. Hundreds of thousands hectares of dried peatlands can become the cause of large-scale prolonged peat fires, such as happened in 2002 in Belarus and in 2010 in Russia.

Damaged peatlands are also a significant source of carbon dioxide emissions. read the whole article from the link here