News/All pieces
New project: MOOReturn
Saving 3,400 tons of CO₂ per year
10/01/2025 From January 2025, the project MOOReturn will combine the large-scale rewetting of peatland with the cultivation, material and energy recovery and marketing of paludiculture raw materials on a total area of 200 hectares.
With estimated CO2 savings of 3,400 tons per year, “MOOReturn” will make a significant contribution to the goals of the National Peatland Protection Strategy and the federal-state target agreement on peatland protection.
Along the Upper Peene in the vicinity of the town of Malchin (Mecklenburg Lake District), the focus is on peatland revitalization, water level optimization and biomass harvesting on various peatland areas. In addition, new possibilities for pulping and material recycling as paper or packaging material, fiberboard and building materials as well as chemical raw materials are to be tested and immediately included in the BMEL-funded project “toMOORow - Alliance of Pioneers”. The degressive thermal utilization supports the development of progressive material utilization at the beginning and enables the participating companies to increase their own contribution. Residual materials are to be marketed as by-products (e.g. fertilizer granulate production).
The Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) is funding the “MOOReturn” project in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania with 4.3 million euros until 2027. Under the leadership of the German Biomass Research Center (DBFZ), a total of nine partners from science, administration and industry are involved. The Universities of Greifswald and Rostock are providing scientific support for GHG measurements and flora/fauna surveys in MOOReturn. The University of Bonn is investigating material recycling. The company Werner GmbH, the company Agrotherm, moor managers and the mayor of Malchin, the 'Wasserwerk der Zukunft' and the Michael Succow Foundation are also involved. Regional agriculture is supporting the project.
Become a peatland specialist!
New qualification program
06/01/2025 For a new five-year qualification and practical program to become a peatland specialist, 10 Bachelor's and Master's graduates are being looked for. With a curriculum and a certificate from the University of Greifswald and the Landeslehrstätte für Naturschutz, the programme aims to counteract the current shortage of specialists for peatland revitalization and help meet the increasing demand for specialists.
Over the 5-year term, it offers:
- Paid positions (E13/E9A/B)
- Training and work placements at the LUNG with a focus on rewetting projects
- Insight into the practical implementation of nature conservation projects and climate protection measures
- Prospects for the future in an innovative and interdisciplinary field
The program starts in April 2025, applications are still possible until January 13. Further information and application for graduates with a Bachelor's degree and graduates with a Master's degree.
Dreaming of wet peatlands
Peatland jobs for Christmas!
20/12/2024 Dear peatland friends,
we at the GMC are “Dreaming of a wet peatland” (or many) constantly and, of course, at Christmas, too. Not dreaming only, but working hard to make it come true. That’s why – so close to Christmas – we let the bells ring for our current job announcements, 21 in total. If they were gifts, they would pile up under the Christmas tree!Please distribute widely, so these job ads can be like a present to a suitable person and a contribution to the efforts of rewetting peatlands and protecting the climate. For Christmas this year we can justifiably so sing: “We wish you rewetted peatlands, we wish you rewetted peatlands and a happy new year“ - great thanks to everybody joining, supporting or following us in 2024!
More information on our job announcements:
Contribute to pioneering research on the novel ecosystems of rewetted peatlands Contribute to pioneering research on the novel ecosystems of rewetted peatlands as part of an interdisciplinary and international team! The newly established Collaborative Research Center “WETSCAPES2.0”, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), is seeking talented and motivated scientists and technical experts to join us in understanding the dynamic processes shaping these unique landscapes.
We are hiring:
1 Scientific Coordinator
10 Postdoctoral Researchers
16 Doctoral Researchers
4 Technical Experts
Our research network brings together the expertise of leading institutions:
University of Greifswald
University of Rostock
IGB Berlin
GFZ Potsdam
Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry Jena
Humboldt University of Berlin
Together, we investigate the biogeochemical, hydrological, and biological processes in rewetted peatlands and their role in the broader landscape, focusing on water and matter fluxes as well as microbial and biological drivers.
Here more information on the overarching research themes, training programs, and application details.
Paludiculture & 3D, Map 2.0 and more
Newsletter – new issue
11/12/24 Will there will be cattails in printer cartridges in the future, what are thematic maps the new Global Peatland Hotspot Atlas and what will the WETSCAPES 2.0 project be examining over the next ten years – find out in the just published current issue of our Paludiculture newsletter.
Further topics include the compendium on the paludiculture potential of Ukraine and details & deadlines for the international paludiculture conference "Renewable Resources from Wet and Rewetted Peatlands" from September 23rd to 26th, 2025 in Greifswald, jointly organized by the Greifswald Moor Centrum and the Thünen Institute. Also in this newsletter: reports about EIN:FLUSS:RAUM:MOOR, the joint exhibition by MONAS-Collective and Greifswald Moor Centrum inspired by Caspar David Friedrich, about a soil workshop within the PaludiNetz and about the conference "MENSCHEN.MACHEN.MOORE."
We hope you enjoy reading and are happy to receive feedback on the newsletter by email to communication@greifswaldmoor.de.
New: Wetscapes 2.0
10 mio project funded by Deutsche Forschungs Gesellschaft
04/12/24 ‘WETSCAPES2.0: novel ecosystems in rewetted fen landscapes’ will investigate the functioning and complex ecological, biogeochemical and hydrological processes in rewetted fens. The funding from the German Research Foundation was acquired by the Universities of Greifswald and Rostock together with the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB Berlin), the Helmholtz Centre Potsdam German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ), the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU), the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry Jena (MPI-BGC) and the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU).
The background: peatlands have been drained for centuries, which has led to significant greenhouse gas emissions, nutrient discharge into watercourses and neighbouring ecosystems as well as massive losses of biodiversity. Rewetting programmes across Europe are now intended to reverse these negative effects. However, this is not restoring the original peatlands, but creating new types of ecosystems, the functioning of which is still only partially understood.
The research network aims to better understand the functioning and complex ecological, biogeochemical and hydrological processes in rewetted fens. It will investigate the effects of rewetting peatlands in space and time at landscape level and beyond. In the long term, concrete contributions to the management of these areas and to sustainable utilisation through paludiculture will be developed.
WETSCAPES 2.0 strengthens cutting-edge research in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and also makes a decisive contribution to addressing global challenges such as climate change and biodiversity loss and advancing nature-based solutions locally. Knowledge transfer and the communication of research topics for greater social acceptance will take place in close cooperation with the Greifswald Mire Centre.
The DFG's Collaborative Research Centres (SFB) are long-term research institutions at universities in which scientists work together as part of an interdisciplinary research programme. Innovative, challenging, complex and long-term projects can be realised in the Collaborative Research Centres by coordinating and concentrating people and resources at the applicant universities. They serve to develop institutional priorities and structures.
More information can be found in the media information of the University of Greifswald.
Peatlands & Brazil
New briefing paper and perspective for "peatland breakthrough" at COP30
22/11/24 As UNFCCC COP29 is ending in Baku, Azerbaijan, preparations are gathering pace for the next COP – which will take place in Brazil. Scientists are already now pointing out the little-noticed but huge climate potential of the peatlands of Brazil. The country’s most carbon dense ecosystem is nearly unprotected and tremendously threatened by large scale agriculture and deforestation, a new briefing paper by the Greifswald Mire Centre and partners finds.
In Brazil there are 17,000 km² covered with peat and another 209,000 km² with peat occurring in patches. These peatlands are distributed in Amazonia, the Cerrado savanna, the coastal areas plus in mountainous areas and highlands. Clearly, the Brazilian Amazonia, e.g. the Rio Negro basin and along river valleys, is Brazil's peatland hotspot.
The United Nations Environmental Agency (UNEP) estimates their carbon stock in peatlands is 39 Gt. It also assumes 3,540 km² of organic soils currently to be under land use, causing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of at least 18 Mt CO2-e. Scientists suspect this number to be an understimation. Brazil's peatlands also serve as water buffer which is severly needed for the dry season and prevention of wildfires.
However, Brazil does not report carbon emissions from land use on organic soils to the UNFCCC. Greenhouse gas emissions resulting from e.g. peatland drainage, drought, peat fires, from agriculture and urban encroachment remain unaccounted for. Also, wetland protection in general is currently excluded from the most important Brazilian nature conservation law, the federal Brazilian Native Vegetation Protection (LPVN) Law (12,651, May 2012). Thus, activities with negative impacts such as cattle grazing and extraction of water for domestic purposes remain allowed in wetlands.
"Brazil’s peatlands are virtually not recognized nor protected, and seriously threatened by industrial scale agriculture, like soy and cattle production, deforestation and climate change. We urgently need to better understand and protect peatlands in Brazil.” says Felix Beer, one of the authors of the new briefing paper.
Since peatlands are spread over incredibly vast areas and peatland science is a rather young discipline in Brazil, the extent of peatlands there is subject to large uncertainties. There is a tremendous need to increase monitoring efforts, legal protection, conservation measures and to close knowledge gaps etc.. Alexandre Christofaro Silva, Professor of Forest Engineering at the Federal University of Jequitinhonha and Mucuri valley, demands: “The conservation of Brazilian peatlands is essential not only for traditional people and regional communities, but to humanity. At COP30 even in Brazil we need to have them on the agenda, and fight to stop their anthropization (fire, drainage, pasture) as we fight to stop cutting Amazonian rain forests.”
In respect to next year's climate summit, Cinthia Soto Golcher, responsible for Climate Change Advocacy at Wetlands International, states: “To reach the Paris Agreement goals on mitigation and adaptation, drained peatlands must be restored and rewetted. This cannot be achieved by only a few actors, but needs the mobilization of national and international stakeholders and resources. Hence, we view COP 30 in Brazil as a historic opportunity -and responsibility- for the international community to advance a significant and transformative chapter for peatlands in which they are seriously considered as part of the path towards a resilient 1,5C planet by 2050.”
Global Peatland Hotspot Atlas
Launch & call to action at COP29
21/11/24 Brandnew, incredibly informative and well designed: the new Global Peatland Hotspot Atlas launched in a peatland side event Side Event at the climate summit COP29 in Baku today! It presents the most up-to-date data on world’s peatlands in a Global Peatland Map 2.0 visualizing global threats and opportunities for peatlands.
That’s new:
- regional maps on all six continents
- thematic maps on biodiversity, permafrost, water supply and more
- maps on degradation, greenhouse gas emissions, peatland use, environmental risks etc
This Global Peatland Hotspot Atlas is a call to action to place peatlands at the heart of the global environmental agenda! It enables decision makers to scope potential regions for conservation, restoration, and sustainable management, since time to act is now.
The Atlas was issued by UNEP as a product of the Global Peatlands Initiative with maps of the Greifswald Mire Centre.
4th RRR-conference in Sept 2025
First info on programme, speakers, excursions...
20/11/24 Jointly organised by Greifswald Mire Centre and Thünen Institute the 4th RRR Conference "Renewable Resources from Wet and Rewetted Peatlands" will take place in Greifswald from 23rd – 26th September 2025.
Rewetting peatlands and sustainable land-use concepts are key to tackling climate change. To advance peatland solutions the 4th RRR Conference aims to converge science and practice and invites scientists, landowners and land users, as well as people from administration, business, arts and design, policy and conservation, and other interested people.
Join us to take a look and celebrate 25 years of paludiculture advancements and to dive into topics like governance, biodiversity, biomass utilisation, and photovoltaics on rewetted peatlands Participate in workshops, poster sessions and exhibitions. An entire afternoon is dedicated to highlight practical experiences. Thus, contractors, manufacturers, and other stakeholders, will have the opportunitiy to showcase their products in an exhibition and to present their projects in pitches on a stage
In addition, excursions will lead to a Typha farming site in the Peene valley, a coastal flood peatland restoration with grazing (Karrendorfer Wiesen) and to buffalo grazing in coastal peatlands (Darss peninsula) - all three sites are located in Mecklenburg-Western Pommerania. An excursion on Sphagnum paludiculture is destined to Hankhauser Moor in Lower Saxony.
Registration will be possible from beginning of 2025 und abstracts may submitted until 31.st May 2025. You may find all information in detail on the RRR-conference website.
If you would like to contribute by offering a workshop or showcasing your project at the exhibition you my contact info@rrr2025.com.
Peatland sound & light
Vernissage EIN:FLUSS:RAUM:MOOR
30/10/24 EIN:FLUSS:RAUM:MOOR, the joint exhibition by MONAS-Collective and Greifswald Mire Centre, can be seen from 31st October -7th December 2025 in Spielhalle Kunst at Greifswald. It reflects peatlands in sound and light artwork inspired by Caspar David Friedrich and his fascination with landscape. In the painter's anniversary year, this exhibition invites visitors to experience beauty and significance of peatland landscapes in an unusual way - in a combination of climate data, audio recordings, light projections and exhibits.
The artists captured peatland sound using soil microphones at Kieshofer Moor and Karrendorfer Wiesen, both close to Greifswald. Together with data from greenhouse gas measurements by GMC scientists, these are converted into light pulses. The visitors themselves influence this system, as the installation also measures CO2 values in the room in real time.
The fusion of sound, image and sculpture can be experienced free of charge from Wednesday to Sunday, 11 am to 5 pm.
There are several side events, all free of charge, accompanying the exhibition:
- 9th November at 2 pm: a free guided tour through the exhibition
- 19th November at 5 pm: How to communicate peatland and climate protection? Students of landscape ecology at the University of Greifswald present ideas in unusual formats. Music, pantomime, theatre - come around an let yourself be surprised at Spielhalle Kunst.
- 23rd November at 1 pm: a finissage-peatland walk combined with a final guided tour through the exhibition by the Caspar David Friedrich Anniversary Office
Applause with reeds
Festive environmental award ceremony
27/10/24 She works in the lecture hall, in the field and in parliamentary hearings - peatland researcher Franziska Tanneberger is the kind of scientist one would wish for. Engineer Thomas Seidel has developed the “Swiss army knife of electromobility” to combat Germany's “range anxiety”. Secretary General Alexander Bonde and Chairman of the Board of Trustees Kai Niebert told the press before the award ceremony that choosing the winner of this year's German Environmental Award was not difficult.
Tanneberger and Speidel aim to say goodbye to “burning” - in very different ways. The entrepreneur at ADS-TEC Energy is advancing electromobility with fast charging stations. The scientist at the University of Greifswald and co-director of the Greifswald Mire Center wants to stop oxidation by draining peat soils and shows the opportunities for natural climate protection through wet peatlands.
“We should not be content with regularly failing to achieve our climate targets,” says Tanneberger. She appreciates the award because it raises awareness for solutions and because it is a great recognition for the entire peatland team in Greifswald. Its representatives waved reeds for applause.
Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier also emphasized solutions in his speech: charging stations as self-evident as telephone booths used to be, he imagined. They were everywhere - except in the peatlands, Steinmeier said. In view of the climate crisis, its image is changing from sinister to beneficial. Signals, said Franziska Tanneberger, are sent to us by the peatlands even without a telephone box in them. She would like to use her share of the prize money to fund further research and implementation on climate and biodiversity protection in peatlands and their sustainable use.
About the German Environmental Award:
With the German Environmental Award, the German Federal Environmental Foundation (DBU) annually honors the achievements of people who make an exemplary contribution to the protection and preservation of the environment. The prize is endowed with a total of 500,000 euros and is presented by the Federal President. Here are the media reports from tagesschau and others.