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Region: Economics and Sociology

2025 year, number 3

SWAMPS ARE RETREATING. NEW RISKS, NEW OPPORTUNITIES

Yu.P. Voronov
Institute of Economics and Industrial Engineering, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia
Keywords: climate warming, swamps, peat, Asian cyclone, greenhouse gases, fires, drainage, crop rotations, nitrogen fertilizers

Abstract

The article discusses new opportunities and risks on the southern border of the taiga, where swamps are being naturally drained due to climate warming. Highlighting the dangers that arise in these conditions, the author puts the high risk of fires first in connection with the need to take emergency measures. The paper notes that drainage of swamps has stopped all over the world and work on their restoration is beginning. The difficulties of assessing the likelihood of fires, as well as developing technologies for marsh restoration (re-wetting), are discussed. Along with new dangers, the author describes new opportunities that appear for the economy in connection with the processes occurring on the southern border of the taiga. Among the new possibilities, the article discusses new directions for the use of peat and a more active involvement of wild plants from the swamp environment in economic circulation. Particular attention is paid to the problem of increasing soil fertility in areas cleared of swamps and taiga. Options for changing crop rotations and introducing new agricultural crops into them are also considered.