Best Peatland

The Cuvette Centrale is a broad, low-lying basin of forests, rivers, swamps, and peatlands in the central Congo Basin, principally within the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo. Research has identified an exceptionally large tropical peatland complex beneath its swamp for...

The Okefenokee Swamp Prairies are expansive, open-water wetland areas located within the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge in Georgia. Characterized by floating peat mats and a covering of aquatic plants like water lilies and bladderworts, these marshes are surrounded by cypress forests. The prair...

The Vasyugan Swamp in western Siberia, Russia, is one of the world's largest swamps, covering approximately 53,000 sq km, storing an estimated 15 billion tonnes of peat carbon accumulated over roughly 10,000 years.

Forsinard Flows is a nature reserve located in Caithness and Sutherland, Scotland, managed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). It protects a vital section of the Flow Country, a vast and globally significant expanse of blanket bog that serves as a crucial carbon sink. The reserv...

The Likouala Swamps in the Republic of Congo form part of the Congo Basin's peatland system, covering millions of hectares of remote, largely unexplored swamp forest that harbors forest elephants and western lowland gorillas.

Sax-Zim Bog is a large wetland and boreal landscape in northeastern Minnesota composed of peatlands, marshes, forests, meadows, and agricultural areas. It is widely known as a birding destination, particularly in winter, when visitors seek great gray owls, northern hawk owls, boreal chickadees, and...

Awarua Wetland is a coastal wetland complex located in the Southland region of New Zealand's South Island, near the city of Invercargill. The area encompasses extensive peatlands, lagoons, swamps, and estuaries, and includes the Waituna Lagoon, which is part of a designated Ramsar Wetland of Interna...

Mer Bleue is a 3,500-hectare peat bog near Ottawa, Ontario, protected as a conservation area and designated a Ramsar wetland in 1995.

Kielderhead Moors are remote uplands near England's border with Scotland, notable for extensive blanket bog within the Kielder landscape.

Great Dismal Swamp Marshes are wetlands spanning Virginia and North Carolina, protected by a national wildlife refuge established in 1974.

Red Lake Peatland is an extensive peat-forming wetland complex in northern Minnesota and one of the largest continuous peatlands in the contiguous United States. It contains raised bogs, fens, forested wetlands, and distinctive surface patterns produced by water flow and peat accumulation. Much of i...

Morden Bog is a National Nature Reserve in Dorset's Wareham Forest, notable as a well-preserved lowland heath and valley-mire ecosystem.

Burns Bog Wetlands form a roughly 3,000-hectare raised bog in Delta, British Columbia, one of the largest undeveloped urban peatlands in North America.

Kopuatai Peat Dome in New Zealand is the country's largest unaltered raised bog, notable for its unique ecosystem and significant carbon storage capacity.

Brière Regional Natural Park in France protects the second-largest marsh in the country, characterized by its traditional thatched cottages and a centuries-old system of communal reed cutting.

The Somerset Levels are a sparsely populated coastal plain and wetland area in southwestern England, notable for their rich agricultural history and ancient prehistoric trackways.

Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge protects peat-rich pocosin wetlands in North Carolina and supports major wintering flocks of tundra swans.

Whangamarino Wetland is the second-largest peat bog in New Zealand's North Island, serving as a critical habitat for threatened native bird species.

Thorne Moors is a major lowland raised peat bog located in South Yorkshire, England, and forms part of the Humberhead Levels. Recognized as one of the largest remaining mires in the UK, it is designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a National Nature Reserve. The landscape is characte...

Clonmacnoise and West Offaly Bog is a central Irish peatland region notable for extensive raised bogs near the early monastic site of Clonmacnoise.

Yong-neup is a high-altitude peat bog in South Korea recognized as a Ramsar site, notable for its rare wetland flora and its importance in regional ecological research.

Hatfield Moors is an area of lowland raised peat bog near Doncaster in South Yorkshire, England. Together with the neighboring Thorne Moors, it forms part of the Humberhead Peatlands National Nature Reserve and preserves habitat for specialized bog plants, birds, and invertebrates. The landscape has...

Necedah National Wildlife Refuge, established in Wisconsin in 1939, protects wetlands, savannas, and forests and aided eastern whooping crane restoration.

Ebblake Bog is an 11.3-hectare Site of Special Scientific Interest on the Dorset-Hampshire border, notable for deep peat, wet heath and valley mire.

Montiaghs Moss is a cutover lowland raised bog in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, notable for a long-established marsh fritillary butterfly colony.

A large lowland region of marshes and forests spanning Belarus, Ukraine, and Poland, known as Polesie, one of Europe's most extensive wetland complexes.

The Hudson Bay Lowlands are a low-lying region of muskeg and wetlands surrounding Hudson Bay in northern Canada, constituting one of the world's largest wetland complexes.

The Meshchera Lowland is a forested and marshy plain in eastern European Russia, notable for its extensive peat bogs and flat terrain across the Moscow, Ryazan, and Vladimir regions.