King’s Birthday Honour recognises researcher’s dedication to saving peatlands
A University of Leicester geographer who has dedicated her career to preserving the world’s peatlands has been recognised in the King’s Birthday Honours.
Professor of Physical Geography, Sue Page, has been awarded a Member of the British Empire (MBE) for services to peatland and climate research, recognising a long career devoted to studying these natural carbon sinks.
She is among over a thousand recipients who have been awarded for their exceptional achievements in this year’s Birthday Honours List, which has a particular focus on those who have given their time to public service.
Peatlands are a type of wetland, where dead vegetation is stopped from fully breaking down. They cover just 3% of the global land surface, but store around 650 billion tonnes of carbon, around 100 billion tonnes more than all of the world’s vegetation combined.
Peatlands act as one of the world’s most effective carbon capture and storage systems in their untouched state, but many peatland areas have been substantially modified by human activity, including drainage for agriculture and forest plantations, and threatened by wildfires.
An ecologist by training, Professor Page began her research on tropical peatlands in 1993 in Central Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo. Since 1998, she has been involved in a number of research programmes investigating the ecology, biodiversity, natural resource functions and carbon dynamics of these systems. In 2013, Professor Page was awarded the Busk Medal by The Royal Geographical Society for her conservation research on tropical peatlands and in 2015 she received the Theodore Sperry Award from the Society for Ecological Restoration.
Professor Page said: “I am very taken aback to receive an MBE but delighted that the critical role of peatlands in the global carbon cycle and in supporting biodiversity is being recognised through this honour. My research journey would not have been possible without the wider peatland science community, both here in the UK and overseas, and I am grateful for all the support that colleagues, researchers and various organisations have provided along the way. I hope that my award will shine a stronger light on the urgent need to protect, restore and sustainably manage some of the world’s most important natural resources.
Professor Nishan Canagarajah, President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Leicester, said: “To be recognised in the King’s Birthday Honours list is an inspiring achievement, and my heartfelt congratulations go out to Professor Page on behalf of our University community.
“Professor Page’s dedication to the study of some of the world’s most important resources in managing our planet’s carbon has been a vital contribution in tackling climate change.”