What must happen now on peatlands! 

Conference "Peatland Protection is Climate Protection"

29/3/2022 Wet peatlands are natural climate protection! That’s what scientists of the Greifswald Mire Centre together with practitioners and partners clearly stated at yesterday's conference "Peatland Protection is Climate Protection" in front of 200 participants in Berlin and just as many viewers in the livestream. Up to seven percent of Germany's greenhouse gas emissions can be saved by rewetting drained peatlands. It therefore represents one of the most effective measures for the "Natural Climate Protection" action programme announced today by Steffi Lemke, Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection.  

"More crises must not be allowed to accumulate. Wet peatlands are natural climate protection and therefore rewetting is one of the most effective measures for it in Germany. That is why they play an important role in the new action programme budgeted at 4 billion Euros," said Federal Minister Lemke at the conference.   

The expertise exists. Scientists of the Greifswald Mire Centre and partners have researched the climate impact of wetlands and tested paludiculture together with farmers. Innovative entrepreneurs have developed regional and ecological products from it. Individual German states have issued carbon certificates from rewetting. Now it is a matter of implementing climate protection through peatland conservation large scale, as the conference showed. Representatives from nature conservation, agriculture and companies agree that political, administrative and financial framework conditions still need to be created.  

Prof. Dr. Kai Niebert, President of the German Nature Conservation Circle, described the rewetting of peatlands as a task for society as a whole, similar in dimension to the coal phase-out. In terms of climate protection, the clock showed five to twelve, while in terms of biodiversity it has already run out, he stated. If we still wanted to ensure food security, we now had to think differently and had no choice when it comes to peatland protection, Niebert said. This now be driven forward decisively and jointly.  

Bernhard Krüsken, Secretary General of the German Farmers' Association, considered the rewetting of peatlands to be a generational project, just as drainage had been. He thought it  important to involve everyone, to communicate honestly about the scope of the measures and to promote them in the long term. Land users must be offered alternatives and Paludi-PV, i.e. photovoltaics on rewetted moorland, could be a 'collateral benefit', Krüsken said. 

Accelerated Peatland Protection in Lower Saxony

The GMC supports the motion of B90/The Greens

15/3/2022 The GMC supports the motion of B90/Greens Yesterday, the Greifswald Mire Centre and other experts were invited to a hearing in the Environment Committee of the Lower Saxony Parliament to comment on the motion of the Bündnis 90/ Die Grünen parliamentary group "Peatland protection = species protection + climate protection" (Drs. 18/10170). Since Lower Saxony owns about 670,000 hectares of organic soils and is thus the German federal state richest in peatlands. The peatlands are predominantly used agriculturally, especially as grassland, and drained for this purpose. These areas thus cause high greenhouse gas emissions, which makes Lower Saxony frontrunner in terms of greenhouse gas emissions from organic soils among the federal states. Only rewetting can stopp these emissions. In the past 40 years, an average of 950 hectares of peatland per year have been rewetted, and the GMC calculates that 20,000 hectares per year need to be rewetted in order to achieve the Paris climate protection targets. In the GMC’s statement supports the motion of Bündnis 90/ Die Grünen in many points and explains further ones in order to substantially accelerate the peatland protection in Lower Saxony

3 kg, 544 pages - Germany's peatlands

Book launch 28th March in Berlin

3/3/2022 At 3 kg, the recently published book “Moore in Deutschland” is not only a heavyweight on the scale, but also in terms of content. It presents Germany's 115 most important peatlands on 544 pages and with 908 photographs. On Monday 28th March, the authors Prof. em. Dr. Michael Succow and Dr. Lebrecht Jeschke will present the book at 7 p.m. at the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania State Representation in Berlin. During the moderated discussion, co-authors Dr. Franziska Tanneberger and Dr. Greta Gaudig will also discuss the importance of peatlands for climate protection on the panel. During the day the conference “Peatland Protection is Climate Protection” is entirely dedicated to the same topic from 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. at the State Representation of Lower Saxony in Berlin, which will also be offered via livestream.

To be improved significantly

Better protection of natural carbon stocks in the EU

20/2/2022 Twenty environmental organisations under the umbrella of the German Nature Conservation Ring (DNR), including the Succow Foundation, partner in the Greifswald Mire Centre, demand a better protection of natural carbon reservoirs and sinks - including peatlands - and to develop them in harmony with species and nature conservation. The critique is addressed to the Parliament and Council of the European Union. So far, the draft of the new Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) Regulation must be tightened up. Otherwise, the goal of climate neutrality at EU level by 2050 and at national level by 2045 at the latest cannot be achieved, the organisations stress.

They propose, among other things, to at least double the estimated target of storing 310 million tonnes of climate-damaging greenhouse gas emissions by natural sinks.

Since sinks must sequester more carbon than sources release by 2035, reducing emissions from land use must also be an equivalent target, for example stopping peatland drainage and amplifying rewetting. The LULUCF Regulation must include the reporting of requirements for categories for forests, arable land, grassland and wetlands so that measures can be assessed and adjusted.

The EU Commission had presented its proposals for the amended LULUCF Regulation in mid-July this year as part of the "Fit for 55" climate package. This is intended to adapt the existing legislation to the new climate targets for 2030 and 2050. Now the EU Parliament and Council have to find and negotiate their positions in order to then bring about a legally binding decision. The Succow Foundation as a partner in the Greifswald Mire Centre, together with many other organisations, will continue to campaign for ambitious and comprehensive targets.