News

August 2025

Agriculture on Europe's peatlands?

New map shows where

Map: Agriculture on Europe's peatlands (Credit: M. Kaiser /GMC)

1/09/2025  Across Europe many wetlands are drained for agriculture, releasing vast amounts of CO₂ into the atmosphere. Identifying where these drainage “hot spots” occur—whether for arable crops or grassland—is critical to promoting wet alternatives such as paludiculture. As part of the project Building the European Peatlands Initiative: A Strong Alliance for Peatland Climate Protection in Europe, researchers have combined the latest European Wetland Map with land cover data to produce a new map showing the agricultural use of peatlands in the European Union and several neighboring countries (Verlinkung von GMC). This map offers valuable insights for policymakers, conservationists, and the interested public seeking sustainable solutions. The map is based on data from the Global Peatland Database (GPD), which collates and integrates data on location, extent and drainage status of peatlands and organic soils worldwide and for 268 individual countries and regions.
The project is part of the European Climate Initiative (EUKI), funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) and implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. Project partners include Eurosite, CEEweb and the European Landowners’ Organization (ELO).

Pioniering for more practice

in planting reed

Bodenbearbeitung für Schilfpflanzung Polder Bargischow Süd (Foto: Samiel Knobloch)

27/08/2025  80,000 young plants have been planted in the Bargischow-Süd polder in Vorpommern since mid-July. An impressive action! As part of the Paludi-MV project, a dense, high-quality reed bed is to be created here for agricultural use. A tractor with a strip tiller has drawn long rows in the grass on the previous grassland before a soil auger prepared the planting holes, and the seedlings were transported and planted in the field using a quad. After planting, the area will be flooded. The harvest is planned for winter when the plants have lost their leaves and no birds are nesting. In the past, fodder for livestock was grown here, but due to high water levels and soil degradation, the quality was inadequate. Long-term drainage has decomposed the peat, and the polder has settled by over a meter in height. Today, it is therefore one meter below sea level. This is where the reeds come into play as an alternative! They can be used for thatched roof, plaster carriers, insulation boards or cellulose for papers and cartons. Since experience in reed cultivation is still rare, PaludiMV is examining the costs and challenges of planning and implementation.

The pilot project "Paludi-MV" is jointly implemented by the Landgesellschaft Mecklenburg-Vorpommern mbH und der Universität Greifswald , and it is funded by the  Federal Ministry for the Environment . The goal is to test paludiculture on two polder areas: Bargischow-Süd (LK Vorpommern-Greifswald) and Sandhagen (LK Mecklenburg Lake District).

Capturing the value of wetlands – digitally

The Paludiculture Interview

Milan Bergheim (Foto mit freundlicher Genehmigung des FHI)

25/08/2025  What is the value of peatlands? How can the ecosystem values of rewetted areas in particular be captured and quantified? With the Moormonitor, product designer and peatland enthusiast Milan Bergheim and his colleagues in the Valpeats project are developing an economical and practical monitoring system for this purpose. The aim is to enable peatland areas to be rewetted more quickly and over a larger area and used for paludiculture. Read the full interview here.