20/07/2025  The new issue of the Paludiculture Newsletter is here – packed with highlights and background information on peatland conservation and paludiculture!

Some topics in the current issue:

• Programme highlights of RRR2025 – more information about the international conference
• The big collecting: the Paludi Product Catalog aims to showcase current products in one place
• Peatlands & Defense – an unusual perspective
• Regional insights: Peatland conservation how-tos – handouts for Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein
• ProMoFa project in Bavaria – results and practical insights
• Valpeats & Peatland monitor – an interview on the digital assessment of peatland areas

Also: new publications, and an overview of current events on peatlands, climate protection, and paludiculture in the calendar. We hope you enjoy reading and welcome feedback on the newsletter by email to communication@greifswaldmoor.de.

11/07/2025  The catalogue aims to provide an overview of products, prototypes, and services related to the use of wet or rewetted peatlands. The focus is on highlighting the diversity and innovative strength of the companies involved. The Paludi Product Catalogue is a joint initiative by the partners of the PaludiNetz network but is also open to contributions from outside the network.
To reach the widest possible international audience, the catalogue will be published in both German and English. It will be distributed free of charge in printed form and may also be made available online (depending on the platform). Participation is voluntary and free of charge. The participating companies are responsible for the content they submit. The first edition of the catalogue at the RRR Conference in Greifswald this September.
A prerequisite for inclusion is that submissions are clearly related to the utilisation of wet or rewetted peatlands. The catalogue does not cover management practices or biomass processing technologies. For this area, the project PaludiZentrale is planning a separate platform coming up soon: PaludiScout.de.
If you would like to place a product in the catalogue, you can contact the catalogue team by email at produktkatalog@greifswaldmoor.de .The team can also help with translations.

04/07/2025  On 3rd of July 2025, Federal Minister Carsten Schneider of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Climate Protection, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMUKN) had a stopover at the Greifswald Mire Centre during his first official inaugural trip through Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The message was clear: peatlands must remain at the top of the agenda in today's environmental policy.

Franziska Tanneberger, winner of the German Environmental Award 2024, and colleagues demonstrated at various places in and around Greifswald how science on peatlands can be used as a basis for political decisions and how business models can be developed from sustainable peatland use and be scaled up. At the Karrendorf meadows, Schneider could observe  field research of the DFG-funded WETSCAPES project of the University of Greifswald on the ground and also the peatland protection of the Succow Foundation, which owns the nature conservation areas there.
At Greifswald itself, the GMC peatland experts took the VIP-visitor to the mesocosm facility, which monitors plant growth in 108 mini bogs, to the clone collection with 200 reed and 500 peat moss clones, as well as to the peatland library with more than 50,000 publications. They showed the database on peatlands worldwide and at the Michael Succow Foundation first paludiculture products from an an alliance of several companies. This all made clear:
The Greifswald Mire Centre‘s work has not only raised public awareness over the last 10 years, but has also attracted the interest of large business groups. Germany thus has the opportunity to expand its pioneering role in climate protection through rewetting and paludiculture. Environmental Minister Schneider was impressed: "The University of Greifswald’s peatland research is a unique selling point! MV Environment and Agriculture Minister Dr Till Backhaus also supports the long-term preservation and expansion of this in a non-university research institution.

03/07/2025  To ensure that rewetting and restoration efforts don’t get bogged down in lengthy planning, approval, or implementation phases, two brand-new guidelines have just been published for Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein—with contributions from the Greifswald Mire Centre.

Published by the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN), the Guidance for Planning, Financing and Approval provides an overview of the key steps involved in the planning, funding, and approval of peatland protection projects and associated measures. With over 545,000 hectares of carbon-rich peat soils, Lower Saxony has the highest peatland area of any German federal state. However, the majority has been drained for agriculture, forestry, or peat extraction. Clearly, there’s a lot to be done. Particularly helpful are the included tips on how to accelerate and simplify projects, along with an overview of funding programs and key contacts in the region.

If land is available, data on the site exists, nature conservation requirements must be considered, or questions arise - such as potential pollution from World War II - these and more are addressed by the equivalent guideline for Germany’s northernmost state: the Guidance for Planning and Approval of Peatland Protection Projects in Schleswig-Holstein, published in the series of the Greifswald Mire Centre. Covering 129,800 hectares, Schleswig-Holstein's peatlands have mostly been drained - causing negative impacts on biodiversity, climate, and the water cycle.

Both publications are aimed at public authorities, municipalities, foundations, associations, agricultural enterprises, and private individuals.

The guidance for Lower Saxony was developed in a collaboration between the MoorNet and MoKKa projects by the Michael Succow Foundation and DUENE e.V. (both partners of the Greifswald Mire Centre), the Ecologic Institute, and the Lower Saxony State Agency for Water Management, Coastal and Nature Conservation (NLWKN). The Schleswig-Holstein guideline was created as part of the MoKKa project by GMC partners Succow Foundation and the University of Greifswald, in cooperation with the Ministry for Energy Transition, Climate Protection, Environment and Nature of Schleswig-Holstein (MEKUN).

27/06/2025  Peatlands not only help in the fight against climate change, they also provide natural defence in military conflicts. In view of the current war between Russia and Ukraine, this new information paper from the Greifswald Mire Centre advocates the rewetting of peatlands, particularly in border regions, as a measure for Europe's security and defence capability. The paper recommends establishing an EU fund of €250-500 million to finance the rewetting of 100,000 ha as a measure within the EU Carbon Removal Certification Framework (CRCF).

The paper sees further advantages: Rewetting would fulfill a component of the EU Nature Restoration Law. Issuing emission certificates for rewetting peatlands would arouse the economy’s interest and get it involved. Simultaneously, ecological benefits such as the protection of biodiversity or water filtration and retention can be achieved.
In 1500, farmers of Dithmarsch defeated the Danish army in the ‘Hemmingstedter Moor’.  Napoleon's armies were literally bogged down in the peatlands of Russia. Peatlands & defence are not a new topic, as these examples show. For the authors of the information paper, however, it is particularly urgent now to rethink defence and to bring rewetting also for military purposes into current political discussions.
Notably, the media has started to spotlight this topic, such as Yale Environment 360's article "How Restored Wetlands Can Protect Europe from Russian Invasion" or the Dutch radio programme Vroege Vogels.