2–5 June 2026 | Kisumu, Kenya
The Venice Agreement on Peatlands (VA) announces its third biennial series of workshops: 34 underground workshops – locally organised gatherings held in participants' own territories – across 16 countries and 9 languages, converging in an international workshop in the papyrus-rich wetlands of Lake Victoria, Kenya, timed to coincide with World Peatlands Day (2 June 2026).
From Argentina to Uganda, Australia to Norway, these underground workshops are already activating local action and trans-local solidarity around one of the planet's most vital yet threatened ecosystems. The 2026 international gathering in Kisumu will then bring together communities, practitioners, researchers, artists, and peatland custodians from Africa and around the world to exchange knowledge, strengthen collaboration, and celebrate the communities already caring for peatlands in their territories – centering the ecological realities of the Lake Victoria basin while weaving them into a global conversation.
The Venice Agreement on Peatlands is a global grassroots community reimagining how peatlands are protected. Emerging from the eco-cultural collaborations of Turba Tol Hol-Hol Tol (Venice Biennale 2022) and rooted in the growing international peatland movement, the VA brings together conservation, art, science, Indigenous knowledge, community organising, and cultural work – not as separate domains, but as intertwined responsibilities in times of ecological and social breakdown.
Co-organised by Ecofinder Kenya and international partners including the Hach Saye, RE-PEAT, WCS Chile, Double-U-Replay the Michael Succow Foundation (partner in the Greifswald Mire Centre), Global Peatlands Initiative, and Peat4People, the VA 2026 workshops convene diverse stakeholders around peatlands across 16 countries: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Canada, Chile, Colombia, England, Germany, Kenya, the Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and the USA. As with past gatherings in Venice (2022) and Torres Vedras (2024), the underground workshops precede the international event – not as warm-up acts, but as the living, distributed core of the VA itself.