News/All pieces
Save the Date for RRR2025
On Global Peatlands Day
02/06/2024 In celebration of this year’s World Peatlands Day, the Greifswald Mire Centre warmly invites you to save the date for the 4th international RRR conference on the Renewable Resources from Wet and Rewetted Peatlands. Taking place in Greifswald, Germany from September 23rd to 26th, 2025, the conference will unite experts from diverse disciplines to share insights and experiences and address pressing questions within the field of paludiculture.
In 2024, "paludiculture" marked its 25th anniversary since being called into life, with significant advancements made in practical knowledge regarding rewetting, cultivation, processing, marketing, policy development and awareness-building, but large-scale implementation is still low. This conference aims to unite stakeholders involved in the utilisation of rewetted peatlands, welcoming scientists, landowners and users, administrators, manufactors, artists, designers and policymakers. By fostering cross-sector networks, sharing experiences and knowledge, we seek to bridge the gap between science and practice and together discuss and shape the future of paludiculture.
Through a diverse program including lectures, poster presentations, excursions, and a range of interactive events, we endeavour to facilitate meaningful dialogue and collaboration. Stay tuned for further details, including abstract submission and registration information, which will soon be available on our website. We look forward to your participation! For conference updates please visit our website rrr2025.com, or follow @greifswaldmoor on the GMC’s social media channels.
Afforesting drained peatlands?
No viable option, new GMC paper shows
13/05/2024 Although the EU Nature Restoration Law was wiped off the EU’s trilogue-agenda in March, scientists took a close look on what was suggested as a restoration measure during the negotiations: active afforestation of degraded peatlands. Their conclusion: evidence for long term overall climate benefits is lacking. Their recommendation: the NRL should foster true natural ecosystems wherever possible, particularly where those are demonstrably carbon capture systems.
For the article “Active afforestation of drained peatlands is not a viable option under the EU Nature Restoration Law” peatland professor Gerald Jurasinski with colleagues of Greifswald Mire Centre and other European peatland scientists assembled facts of several studies. In most cases CO2 release from peat soil degradation will likely exceed carbon sequestration in the forest biomass, as the paper pubished in Ambio Journal of Environment and Society states. It is pointing out the severe challenges to measure greenhouse gas fluxes in peatland forests both with airtight chambers and eddy covariance technique. Another point of critique: the studies quoted in favor of afforestation do not describe the situation after afforestation of agricultural fields or cutover peatlands.
No peatlands in Bellevue's Garden?
Yes - at the Environment Week 2024
13/05/2024 There are no peatlands in the garden of Bellevue Palace? That's right, but there will be during the Environment Week on June 4-5.
We from the Greifswald Mire Center, together with the Agency for Renewable Resources, will be demonstrating how important peatland protection is for climate protection - with cattail in the wall and peat moss on the plate - at the Environment Week of Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and the German Federal Environmental Foundation (DBU).
At our stand no. 35, interested visitors can find out how peat moss is propagated in a bioreactor or what a landscape with paludiculture looks like in a model. As a souvenir, you can take home some cress in a home-made press pot - filled with substrate made from paludiculture biomass, of course!
Registration for the event is open until May 15.
But what is the Environment Week? Not quite for a week, but for two days, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and the DBU invite environmental and nature conservation organizations and other exhibitors to the park of the official residence to showcase current and imaginative ideas and projects for more environmental, climate and species protection. The show is intended to inspire all participants for a sustainable future. The park will be transformed into a tent city. This year, around 190 exhibitors and more than 70 specialist forums on health, society, the economy, nature conservation, etc. will be taking place.
The Week of the Environment was launched in 2002 by the then Federal President Johannes Rau. Since then, it has been organized together with the Osnabrück-based German Federal Environmental Foundation. This year it is in its seventh edition.
Launch of PaludiAllianz
Companies for paludiculture
It was end of April, but the beginning for the Alliance of Pioneers: 14 large commercial enterprises from the paper, packaging, construction, insulation and wood-based material industries declared at a kick-off event in Berlin that they would test renewable, regional raw materials from wet peatlands in their production and integrate them wherever possible. According to the joint press release issued by the Michael Otto Environmental Foundation and the Succow Foundation, partners in the Greifswald Mire Centre, which launched the PaludiAllianz in the toMOORow initiative, the aim is to achieve rapidly growing demand for paludiculture in various sectors of the economy. Well-known companies are now among the founding members:
Interest in future paludiculture products in the construction sector has been expressed by prefabricated house manufacturer Bau-Fritz GmbH & Co. KG, the construction group STRABAG SE and OTTO WULFF Bauunternehmung GmbH and Sto SE & Co. KGaA. The companies toom Baumarkt and OBI Group Holding SE & Co. KGaA also consider biomass from paludiculture in the horticulture segment as a supplier of substrates. The retail and service company Otto (GmbH & Co. KG), LEIPA Group GmbH, the WEPA Foundation and, in the area of recyclables management, PreZero Stiftung & Co. KG with OutNature GmbH aim to make paper and packaging more sustainable by adding of paludiculture biomass. Procter & Gamble Service GmbH is involved in the area of consumer goods for household and cosmetics, as is Tengelmann Twenty-One KG with KiK Textilien and Non-Food in the retail sector.
“Development of scalable value chains with paludiculture biomass from rewetted peatlands in Germany in practical cooperation with economic players” (PaludiAllianz) is the detailed title of the project, for which Cem Özdemir, Federal Minister of Agriculture and Nutrition, handed over a funding decision of almost 1.8 million euros over the next three years at Kulturbrauerei in Berlin. As rewetting also offers effective natural climate protection, Federal Environment Minister Steffi Lemke was also a guest speaker at the event.
New GMC publication
on peatland, law & rewetting
22/04/2024 "Legal framework conditions for the rewetting and use of peatlands - a mapping of fields of action and levers" is the full-length title of the new GMC publication. Above all, it provides a graphic overview of nine fields of action as well as the respective applicable legal bases and political strategies for rewetting and adapted peatland use in the Federal Republic of Germany. The focus is on the federal level. There are text boxes with suggestions as to which political levers could improve or accelerate peatland climate protection- The relevant ministries are conveniently assigned. The GMC publication is intended as a basis for further and more detailed legal analyses.
Methane and rewetting
Explained in new film
17/04/2024 This film is troubleshooting this peatland question: What’s the lesser evil - drained peatlands emitting carbon dioxide (CO2) or rewetting causing methane (CH4) emissions? Find answers on:
Bioreactor, anniversary, investments & more ...
Newsletter: new issue
10/04/2024 These topics don't go together? Yes, they do, because hteir all topics of our new issue of the Paludiculture Newsletter. Read about
- what peat mosses have to do in a bioreactor,
- what the provisional failure of the law to save the European Council now means for peatland,
- how the 25-year-old concept of paludiculture is not bogged down at all, but should be celebrated today, and
- why investing in peatlands is worth it
Not only do we hope you enjoy reading this newsletter, we would also be delighted to receive feedback on it. Simply write an e-mail to communication@greifswaldmoor.de.
MoorMaidens at Mapathon
Open data mining for better peatland maps in Germany and worldwide
A map of all peatlands and wetlands in Europe is to be created as part of the Mapathon at the University of Galway, Ireland, on 6th April. The MoorMaidens, the team of the Greifswald Mire Centre, is determined to engage in quite some sound mapping acitivity the coming Saturday.
The event is intended to draw public attention to the peatlands, but also to the opportunities offered by open data. The wetlands will be considered from the following perspectives: Biodiversity, Climate Protection, Energy, Community & Culture, Environmental Quality - Water, Soil & Air, Land Use & Agriculture, Research & Applied Sciences, Economy.
Here's how it works: Each team selects a specific geographical area that it would like to map, usually a European country. With the help of open data, mire areas and the categories assigned to them are visualised.
The Mapathon will be streamed live on Zoom and YouTube throughout the day, and a technical support team will be available to answer questions via Google Chat. A full list of discovered open data on peatlands will be distributed to all participants after the event.
Interested parties are encouraged to participate online or on site. The main tool used will be QGIS. There will be an introduction and technical support if required.
A mapathon is a coordinated mapping event where the public is invited to make map improvements in their neighbourhood to increase coverage. The knowledge and work of many is brought together to form a whole from which everyone benefits.
The European Peatlands & Policies Open Data Mapathon 2024 starts on 6th April at 11 a.m. CET, and there are also great prizes for the best teams: The winners will receive 1200 EUR.
Biodiversity - how to save it?
10 must knows from the world of research
Good news: There are only six years left to achieve the biodiversity targets, but we can do a lot to effectively conserve biodiversity at local, national and European level, in society and in politics! 64 scientists have compiled their ideas in the new report of the Biodiversity Research Network, coordinated by the Leibniz Association. Peatlands are mentioned right at the top (the Greifswald Mire Centre and the University of Greifswald also contributed to this), as their conservation helps to combat both the climate crisis and species loss.
In fact, only a small part of global biodiversity is understood so far. The report therefore recommends focusing on the functioning of entire ecosystems rather than individual species. Environmental measures can thus become more sustainable. The "10 must-knows from biodiversity research" provide facts for a National Biodiversity Strategy 2030, which is currently being developed. This will enable the German government to implement the 23 global biodiversity targets agreed by the member states of the United Nations at the World Conference on Nature in December 2022.
25 years of paludiculture
#savethedate
07/03/2024 The word paludiculture was born 25 years ago. A "simple" word was needed for an entire concept: rewetting drained moorland to stop the release of greenhouse gases and ... to continue using it in a new, sustainable form of agriculture. It was made up of two Latin words: palus for swamp and cultura for cultivation. A lot has happened since then: Pioneers have tried out paludiculture, research projects have looked at various aspects from sowing to certificates, politicians are looking into it and companies are beginning to discover paludiculture as a market. This development will be celebrated at the anniversary celebration on June 10-11 (lunch to lunch) in Braunschweig. The PaludiZentrale project, jointly organized by the Thünen Institute, the University of Greifswald and the Succow Foundation, invites you to lectures, excursions and intensive networking. The aim is to create a large Paludi network from paludiculture initiatives and projects in Germany to exchange know-how and experience.