International conference "Peatlands of Siberia: functioning, resources, restoration"(the history of its organization in 2009–2025)

Abstract

The paper presents the main idea and history of the conference “Peatlands of Siberia: functioning, resources, restoration” in 2009–2025 in Tomsk. The initiator of the conference was the Siberian Research Institute of Agriculture and Peat, a branch of the Siberian Federal Scientific Center of Agro-Biotechnology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Over the years, the conference was also co-organized by the Institute for Monitoring of Climate and Ecological Systems of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Tomsk Polytechnic University, Tomsk State University, the Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union, and the Vasyugan State Nature Reserve. From 2009 to 2015 the conference had a more practical focus, with its primary goal being to establish a roundtable dialogue between representatives of science, business, and regional administration on peat resource use. From 2021 to 2025, the conference format changed in the context of Russia's new climate policy, following the ratification of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, and the issue of restoring disturbed and depleted peatlands became a pressing task.