News/All pieces
Peatlands at Futurium
Join the discussion on October 9!
3/10/2025 “More peatlands! But how?” – Futurium, the Joachim Herz Foundation, and the Greifswald Mire Centre are hosting an event under this title on October 9 in the heart of Berlin. Peatlands are key CO₂ reservoirs and, at the same time, controversial interests concerning land use. How can climate protection, agriculture, and local interests be reconciled? This question will be the focus of the expert discussion with visitor participation. from 19:30 p.m.
Moderator Katie Gallus will talk to:
• Lucas Gerrits, co-founder and managing director of Zukunft Moor GmbH
• Juliane Petri, farmer and agricultural consultant from Rhinluch/Kremmen
• Dr. Franziska Tanneberger, Director of the Greifswald Mire Centre
• René Seltmann, Agricultural Consultant for Peatland Protection at the Brandenburg State Office for the Environment (LfU)
The event at Futurium, Alexanderufer 2 in Berlin, is free of charge, but registration is required.
At New York Climate Week
Momentum building for the Peatland Breakthrough
26/09/2025 Peatland Breakthrough is a call-to-action that aspires to enable systemic changes to protect and restore peatlands on a large scale. By bringing together governments, the private sector, donors, and civil society, the Breakthrough aims to help accelerate conservation, restoration, and sustainable and wise use of peatlands worldwide, guided by robust science-based targets and principles.
During New York Climate Week 2025, 25th September, governments, donors, international organisations, and the private sector, gathered for an exclusive high-level meeting hosted by the Government of Peru and partners of the Peatland Breakthrough. The meeting was a pivotal opportunity to mobilise broad support and strengthen partnerships to drive the Peatland Breakthrough forward, ensuring that peatlands are recognized as a key nature based solution for accelerating progress for the global climate agenda, while also contributing to biodiversity, water security, and sustainable livelihoods.
Peatland ecosystems hold unparalleled significance in combating climate change and achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement. They cover only 3% of global land surface but store up to one-third of the planet's soil carbon, double the carbon found in the world’s forest biomass. Beyond their climate mitigation benefits, peatlands enhance community and ecosystem resilience by regulating water flows, reducing flood and drought risks, providing critical habitats for flora and fauna, supporting livelihoods, and enhancing water quality. In fact, the estimated global value of peatland ecosystem services is about USD 2.3 trillion.
Unfortunately, peatlands are being degraded in every part of the world. They are drained for agriculture and forestry, eroded by overgrazing of livestock, mined for fuel and horticulture, and polluted by human activity. Infrastructure development disturbs their hydrology and many are deliberately burned. When we lose peatlands as healthy thriving ecosystems, we not only lose their ability to capture carbon, but conversely, they release large amounts of greenhouse gases. Degraded peatlands currently emit about 4 % of all anthropogenic emissions. Conserving and sustainably managing peatlands and restoring degraded ones must therefore be prioritised to accelerate progress in tackling climate change.
The meeting brought together potential Champion Countries and strategic partners to learn more about the Peatland Breakthrough, explore how they could contribute, and understand the benefits of engaging with this new climate breakthrough, both in the lead-up to its official launch and throughout its implementation. The event was hosted by Juan Carlos Castro Vargas, Minister of Environment of Peru, who emphasized Peru’s role as the first Champion Country of the Peatland Breakthrough.
Peru’s Minister of Environment emphasized the importance of collective action among countries, the private sector, and international partners to achieve clear, measurable goals for peatland protection and climate ambition.
Following presentations on the initiative, roundtable discussions featured high-level participants from the Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Indonesia, who reaffirmed their commitments and highlighted the need for adequate financing to achieve their national climate targets.
Wetlands International, on behalf of Peatland Breakthrough partners, outlined the initiative’s draft global targets and guiding principles aimed at driving systemic change and collective impact. The organization underscored that investing in peatlands offers one of the most effective climate solutions—combining carbon storage, ecosystem resilience, and economic efficiency.
Potential donors and partners including The Nature Conservancy, Diageo, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and the Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies expressed interest in contributing to the effort, exploring opportunities to align their work and investments with the global peatland and climate agendas.
Arlette Soudan-Nonault, Minister for the Environment, Sustainable Development and the Congo Basin, and Executive Secretary of the Congo Basin Climate Commission of the Republic of Congo, reaffirmed her country’s commitments to conserving the Congo Basin’s intact peatlands. She emphasized that conservation cannot be achieved without adequate financing for the energy transition and the country’s NDCs, which depend both on domestic resources and international support. In addition, high-level representatives from the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the Ministry of Forestry of Indonesia presented their ongoing peatland programmes and shared the challenges they face, agreeing that the Peatland Breakthrough can help mobilize critical funding needed to meet their climate goals.
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) emphasized the importance of the Peatland Breakthrough for achieving global climate goals and its relevance to the Paris Agreement, particularly ahead of the upcoming events at UNFCCC COP30. Collaboration and leadership from governments and donors are crucial to unlocking the full potential of peatlands. UNEP presented the current state of the world’s peatlands and progress made through joint initiatives such as the Global Peatlands Initiative and its Global Peatlands Assessment, highlighting that peatlands are a cost-effective nature-based solution that must not be overlooked.
Mara Angélica Murillo-Correa, Senior Programme Officer for Intergovernmental Affairs at UNEP, summed it up: “No Paris without peatlands.” Protecting and restoring peatlands is essential to closing the emissions gap and safeguarding biodiversity. The Peatland Breakthrough provides the political momentum and financial ambition to turn scientific knowledge into transformative global action.
The Peatland Breakthrough is a global call to action led by Wetlands International, the United Nations Environment Programme, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the Greifswald Mire Centre, and the Landscape Finance Lab, developed in close alignment with the Global Peatlands Initiative, and in collaboration with the High-Level Climate Champions Team and the Convention on Wetlands.
Our growing list of supporting partners includes: the Global Environment Centre, RE-PEAT, and The Nature Conservancy.
Image 1: Environmental ministers and leaders from NGOs and the private sector at the Permanent Mission of Peru to the UN, New York (Credit: GPI)
Image 2: Roundtable discussions ensued following exciting presentations on the Peatland Breakthrough (Credit: GPI)
Superfresh: the first ever
Paludi Product Catalogue
24/09/2025 Freshly launched at RRR2025 conference : The first ever Paludi Product Catalogue! With as many pilot products, prototyps and services related to paludiculture as we could assemble. The aim is to provide a comprehensive over view and to show how diverse, innovative and marketable this new form of land use already is today.
To showcase the innovative potential of this field and highlight the diversity of existing products the catalogue is intended for:
• Farmers – to demonstrate the existing demand for paludiculture biomass across a wide range of products.
• Companies – that already process paludiculture biomass or plan to do so, offering inspiration and opportunities for networking
• Research, policymakers, and society
What makes it special: It is open to further contributions and will be regularly updated and expanded in the future. All new and existing Paludi products can be included.
The catalogue is launched at the "Renewable Resources from Wet and Rewetted Peatlands - 4th International Conference on the Utilisation of Wetland Plants", which is part of the project PaludiZentrale. If you would like to place a product in the catalogue, you can contact the catalogue team by email at produktkatalog@greifswaldmoor.de.
New European Peatland Map
now available online
23/09/2025 The European Peatland Map (EPM2025) is now available on our website (including the geodata). It is a product of the Global Peatland Database (GPD), which is hosted at the Greifswald Mire Centre (GMC). It contributes to a consistent and regularly updated knowledge base on peatlands worldwide.
The dataset provides the most up-to-date overview of European peatlands. The EPM2025 integrates current national, regional and local datasets on peatlands and organic soils to represent peatland areas as comprehensively as possible, including degraded and drained peatlands, i.e. those used for agriculture. By providing the data in vector format, the map offers high spatial resolution, making it an indispensable resource for research, policy and nature conservation.
The EPM2025 is based on the peatland layer of the European Wetland Map (2024) but is directly accessible without the need for extraction from the more comprehensive wetland layer. It updates the ‘Peatland Map of Europe’ (Tanneberger et al. 2017), with all national datasets having been reviewed and replaced by more comprehensive or better quality GIS data According to the geodata, the total area of peatland in the countries covered is 38.4 million hectares (384,220 km²).
The EPM2025 was created as part of two EU-funded Horizon projects (ALFAwetlands and WET HORIZONS) and the European Climate Initiative (EUKI) of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection (BMWK) and represents the best available knowledge at European level. More importantly, it is designed as a shared and evolving knowledge base and represents a warm invitation to the scientific and conservation community to further verify, refine, and continuously improve the data at national and regional scales across Europe.
Book of Abstract ready
Get the full picture of RRR2025
20/09/2025 Here ready to be browsed: our Book of Abstract of the 4th international conference on “Renewable Resources from Wet and Rewetted Peatland - RRR2025. Apart from an overview of the programme and practical information it gives you full descriptions of key notes, excursions, sessions and workshops.
Paludiculture in series
Four free seminars
10/09/2025 Register now for four seminar series ‘Peatland protection and paludiculture’ – online, free of charge and jointly organised by FNR e.V., DBV e.V., DLG e.V. and GMC.
The first seminar on 15 October 2025 will take place from 10:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and focus on ‘Land preparation and cultivation of paludiculture’.
It will cover the following topics:
- Approval procedures and obstacles
- Planning, implementation and cultivation in practice
- Communication as the key to successful projects
further topics and speakers are:
• From knowledge to change – preserving moorland soils through structured cooperation
Katja Searles – Speaker, Brandenburg State Office for the Environment
• Tasks and obstacles in the approval process
Kerstin Norda – Managing Director, Nature Conservation Foundation of the District of Cuxhaven
• Practical challenges: planning, implementation and cultivation
Anke Nordt – Project Manager PaludiMV, Landgesellschaft Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
Click here to register.
MoorMic/KoosMic
Peatland sound live & recorded
2/09/2025 MoorMic/KoosMic – the microphone for the sound of the landscape directly from the coastal peatland – for everyone to listen to! KoosMic, because this new listening station is located on the island of Koos just outside Greifswald. From there, it transmits live and in recorded soundscapes of the surrounding habitats, the sounds of peatland meadows, pastures, and hedges. Wind in the reeds, rain on the shore, cows snorting, cranes calling – depending on the weather and season.
The MoorMic/KoosMic is part of the global acoustic cartography radio.aporee by media artist Udo Noll. He worked on it together with students of “Acoustic Ecologies and Sound Studies” at the Bauhaus University Weimar and their professor Kerstin Ergenzinger. Unobtrusive, virtually maintenance-free, solar-powered, and installed with minimal impact on the landscape – the group has successfully implemented its criteria for the MoorMic/KoosMic. The MoorMic has been transmitting since early summer. It has only had to be moved once so far. Cows had been sniffing at it too wildly.
The listening station is intended to promote awareness and perception of the environment. In line with the interdisciplinary research of “acoustic ecology,” it enables the condition and changes in landscapes to be recorded via sound. It is also about sharing and documenting the sound of the world. Almost everyone captures their world in pictures and videos, but what about sound snippets?
The island sound of the marshy coast of Greifswald Bay is available thanks to MoorMic/KoosMic – from anywhere, anytime, and for everyone. For a listening session, simply tune in at radio.aporee.org:8443/koosmic.
Agriculture on Europe's peatlands?
New map shows where
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
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
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.