War & Peat - The remarkable impacts of conflicts
on peatlands and of peatlands on conflicts - a military
heritage of moors, heaths, bogs and fens.
As we approach the centenary of the Great War (WW1),
matters of landscape, terrain, resources and strategies become
increasingly topical and relevant. The relationships of people
and landscapes, of economies and conflicts, and ecology and
history, are complex and multi-faceted. For peatlands,
including bogs, fens, moors, and heaths, the interactions of
people and nature in relation to history and conflicts, are both
significant and surprising.
The themes of this book were addressed at a major
international conference in 2013, and the expanded papers are
presented here as chapters. The conference and book are
mostly focused on temperate environments, but the interactions
of peatlands and conflicts are more global and wetlands have
been hugely influential in tropical conflicts too.