News/All pieces
Global Peatland Initiative at Climate Conference
Side event at 9th May in Bonn
09/05/2017 The book Mires and peatlands of Europe came hot off the press when it was launched at the side event of the Global Peatland Initiative (GPI) at the Climate Change Conference in Bonn 9th May 2017. The side event provided an opportunity for governments, institutions, stakeholders and partners to exchange on advancing efforts to protect peatlands and was jointly organised by UN Environment, FAO, the Ramsar Convention, Wetlands International and GMC. The three editors of the book - Hans Joosten, Franziska Tanneberger (both GMC) and Asbjørn Moen - handed over the first copy of the book to Nur Masripatin, Director General for Climate Change for the Ministry of Environment and Forestry of Indonesia, highlighting major lessons from Europe how to deal wisely with peatlands to avoid further degradation. This feeds perfectly into the vision of enhanced south-south-north exchange under the GPI, discussed during an interactive panel discussion chaired by Hans Joosten. Especially ‘newcomers’ in the peatland community like panel member Joseph Badevokila, national focal point to the UNFCCC of the Republic of Congo, were delighted by the vast experience and knowledge among the partners of the GPI. The side event paved the way to the upcoming negotiations in the land use sector under the UNFCCC and the upcoming Global Landscape Forum: Peatlands matter in Jakarta on 18th May.
World Migratory Bird Day
Greifswald Mire Centre offering excursion
05/04/2017 2017 Just outside of Greifswald the Karrendorfer Wiesen provide a splendid location for bird watching at World Migratoy Bird Day! The Greifswald Mire Centre is inviting birdlovers on a guided tour to see long-distance migrants such as the sedge and the reed warbler, wheatears, redshanks and avocet. Back from their wintering grounds in sub-Sahara Africa they breed there in reeds, on the salt meadows and the shore area. Waders such as wood sandsnipers and dunlins might also be spotted on their way further North. Apart from that there are skylarks and greylag goose. The salt meadows of Karrendorfer Wiesen do not ony present a rare breeding habitat for migratory birds. After its restoration this coastal flood peatland serves as wave breaker. Its vegetation slows erosion of the shore zone and promotes sedimentation. Thus it contributes to the stability of the flat coasts of the Baltic Sea. After flooding, natural waterways ensure rapid drainage. In addition, coastal flood peatlands are significant carbon sinks and therefore important for climate protection.
Mandatory accounting for managed wetlands
New policy paper with Wetlands International and Birdlife
05/04/2017 Wetlands International European Association, Greifswald Mire Centre and Birdlife jointly stress the need for a regulation which takes into account all land use categories to reflect what “the atmosphere sees”. Thus it is of utmost importance to agree for a mandatory accounting for managed wetlands. The European Parliament and Council currently debate on how to include greenhouse gas emissions and removals from land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF) into the 2030 EU climate and energy framework. Read the full paper!
30 good reasons to safeguard peatlands!
New Ramsar peatland portal with GMC contributions
30/03/2017 "30 good reasons to safeguard peatlands!" are freshly assembled in a Ramsar Convention policy brief. It compiles the results from the international workshop “Peatland Conservation and Wise Use in the Context of Climate Change” held at the International Academy for Nature Conservation on the Island of Vilm (Germany) in September 2016. Moreover all presentations of the workshop, including four contributions of the Greifswald Mire Centre, and an extensive workshop documentation are available now on the new peatland web portal of the Ramsar Convention, highlighting the importance of peatlands.
DISQOVER workshop
Land cover reconstruction from pollen data
28/02/2017
From 7th – 10th September the GMC offers the 2017 DISQOVER workshop on methods of quantitative land cover reconstruction from pollen data. The workshop introduces and discusses these methods and will then focus on implementation of the methods in R. Following an introduction, we will explore the capabilities and critical parameters of each method. The number of participants is limited to 15.
For more information and contact, please contact Dr. Martin Theuerkauf (martin.theuerkauf(at)uni-greifswald(dot)de).
Peatlands in EU's policy framework
Report just published
15/02/2017
The project Peatlands in the EU Regulatory Environment analysed the impact of political and legal framework conditions of the EU on peatlands and organic soils in the Member States. Poland and Estonia served as as exemplary Member States and the effects were assessed in much detail in two case studies. The concluding report is now available for download from the website of the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN). It has been prepared by Jan Peters (Greifswald Mire Centre) and Moritz von Unger (Silvestrum).
Further information on the project offers the website of the German Environment Agency (UBA).
RRR2017 - 2nd Announcement
Exkursions and keynote speakers
09/02/2017
The Greifswald Mire Centre welcomes participants coming from a range of different disciplines to join the paludiculture conference week „Renewable Resources from Wet and Rewetted Peatlands 2017 (RRR2017)“. The 2nd Announcement includes a great excursion programme and we are happy to announce our key note speaker Prof. Ab Grootjans, Prof. Hans Joosten and Faizal Parish.
The RRR2017 from 25th - 30th September 2017 comprises a national and an international part, a day of excursions and a Sphagnum farming workshop.
Submissions of abstracts for oral or poster presentations are welcome before 28th February. Exhibition space for contractors, manufacturers and any other stakeholders will be provided indoors and outdoors.
Register for the national and/or international conference and for excursions at www.rrr2017.com. You’ll thus receive regular updates on RRR2017.
World Wetlands Day at 2nd February
Exkursion and cattail-harvest
03/02/2017 With two events the Greifswald Mire Centre raised attention for the importance of healthy wetlands and how they help us to cope with extreme weather events at World Wetlands Day 2017 on 2nd February. Just outside of Greifswald the Karrendorfer Wiesen provide a splendid example: During floods this coastal flood peatland serves as wave breaker. Its vegetation slows erosion of the shore zone and promotes sedimentation. Peatlands like this contribute to the stability of the flat coasts all around the Baltic Sea. After flooding, natural waterways ensure rapid drainage. In addition, coastal flood peatlands are significant carbon sinks and therefore important for climate protection. The Greifswald Mire Centre offered a public excursion to the Karrendorfer Wiesen. Some 25 people joined the tour in this fascinating peatland at a frosty temperature.
Moreover, the Greifswald Mire Centre is proud of a little premiere: the first mechanical cattail harvest in Western Pomerania! The demonstration also took place at World Wetlands Day 2017 on 2nd February. Cattail was harvested on an agriculturally used peatland, where a cattail stand had spontaneously established. In cooperation with local reed harvesters, the mechanical harvest was tested with a Seiga (a amphibious vehicle with low ground pressure). After the successful trial, there was a fruitful exchange on possibilities of cattail cultivation on agriculturally used rewetted peatlands in the region.
Tropical peatland agriculture is devastating
Evidence published by 139 peatland scientists
10/01/2017 After the International Peat Congress 2016, held with over 1,000 participants in Kuching (Malaysia), articles in leading regional newspapers reflected a general consensus and summary of the conference, that current agricultural practices in peatland areas, such as oil palm plantations, do not have a negative impact on the environment. Now a global alliance of 139 peatland scientists published their opinion in Global Change Biology: There is overwhelming evidence that business-as-usual management is not sustainable for tropical peatland agriculture. Failing to recognize the devastating consequences of the current landuse practices on peat soils could mean that the next generation will have to deal with an irreversibly altered, dysfunctional landscape where neither environment nor society, globally or locally, will be winners. Open access has been facilitated by Greifswald Mire Centre and Department of Forestry Sciences, University of Helsinki.
More peatland research
Two new EU projects to start in 2017
21/12/2016 In the coming year, two new EU projects will start at the Greifswald Mire Centre. In REPEAT, REstoration and prognosis of PEAT formation in fens will be studied, with a particular focus on linking diversity in plant functional traits to soil biological and biogeochemical processes. Together with the universities Warsaw (Poland) and Antwerp (Belgium), NIBIO (Norway) and the Danube Delta Research Institute (Romania), Greifswald University will carry out field research in Belgium, the Netherlands, Northeast-Germany,East-Poland and in the Danube Delta. Nationally, the project is funde by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG). Very recently, also the project CLEARANCE was approved for funding. This project will develop a CircuLar Economy Approach to River pollution by Agricultural Nutrients with use of Carbon-storing Ecosystems. Consortium partners are, together with Greifswald University, two universities in Warsaw (Poland), Aarhus University (Denmark), Nijmegen University (the Netherlands) as well as the Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB) Berlin and a Polish NGO.