Peatlands must be wet - immediately

WETSCAPES Conference (Photo: F. Tanneberger)

160 scientists agree at WETSCAPES conference

13/09/2019 Peatlands must be wet - immediately. A quick stop to peatland drainage is necessary to achieve global climate protection goals. This is a summary of the results of the international conference held 10.-13.09.2019 at the University of Rostock. 160 scientists from 20 countries discussed the results of their research in drained, rewetted and near-natural peatlands at the WETSCAPES conference. Representatives from various disciplines talked about plant growth, greenhouse gas emissions, nutrient losses and microbial processes in the soil. Most of these scientists deal with individual phenomena, and together they were able to establish clear relationships and connections between the results. This is particularly important for rewetted peatlands, as these systems represent completely novel ecosystems. The four-year joint research project WETSCAPES (derived from "wet" and "landscapes") is funded by the Excellence Research Programme of the State of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern with 5 million euros at the Universities of Greifswald, Partner in the Greifswald Moor Centrum, and Rostock. The abstract volume of the conference is available here.

Attaché visit to the GMC

Environmental attachées visit the GMC with Minister Backhaus (Photo: St. Busse)

From Japan to Paraguay interest in peatland expertise in MV

30/08/2019 About 30 agricultural and environmental attachés from 14 countries from Japan to Paraguay, together with Dr. Till Backhaus, Minister of Agriculture and Environment in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, visited the Greifswald Moor Centrum on 29 August. A great opportunity to show what Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Greifswald peatland science have to offer: During a guided tour of the Karrendorfer Wiesen, a successfully revitalised coastal flood mire owned by the Michael Succow Foundation, the attachés were able to see and understand the significance of wet peatlands for biodiversity, climate protection and regional development "on the ground". At the research plots of the WETSCAPES project, part of the MV Excellence Initiative, and the mesocosm facility of the University of Greifswald, GMC representatives showed the current research. One week earlier, Elisabeth Aßmann, Chairwoman of the Agricultural Committee of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, had gained an impression of successfully combined peatland, climate and coastal protection, including innovative value creation, on the same site. Here it became clear that peatland protection and paludiculture must be part of a sustainable agriculture in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Obstacles were also addressed: Rewetting is progressing too slowly in the federal state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Planning and approvals take a long time.

Peatland conservation: Solutions on 84 pages

Report comprises all results of the MoorDialog project

29/08/2019 The MoorDialog project was funded by the German government’s National Climate Initiative from 2016-2019. Many important stakeholders of peatland and climate protection were reached and involved by events and publications within the project – building a #peatlandsmatter network in Germany. Another result of MoorDialog is the report Klimaschutz auf Moorböden - Lösungsansätze und Best-practice-Beispiele (“Climate protection on peat soils – solutions and Best-practice-examples”, German only), published within the Proceedings of the Greifswald Mire Centre. It recommends a possible transformation path for peatlands in Germany, as it would be necessary to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. Now it is necessary to further develop this transformation path in dialogue and to bring the solutions more rapidly into society, politics, the economy and on the ground itself.

Revised RSPO Manual

Efforts to make palm oil more sustainable

06/08/2019 The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) has revised ist manual on best management practices (BMPs) for management and rehabilitation of peatlands. The review and updating process has been facilitated by Global Environment Centre. The manual includes text and maps provided by the Greifswald Mire Centre.

Peatlands in the desert

Peatlands in the Uzbek Nuratau (Photo: L. Hebermehl)

Data from Uzbekistan for Global Peatland Database

01/08/2019 There are peatlands in the desert state of Uzbekistan! Researchers of the Succow Foundation, partner in the Greifswald Mire Centre, found them in the high mountain range of the Tian Shan, in the foothills of the Nuratau and along the Syrdarya river. These peatlands with peat layers of 30-70 cm have been largely unknown and are threatened by high-intensity agricultural use and degradation. The data collected during field work in July will be fed into the Global Peatland Database (Link) and will thus expand the global knowledge on peatland distribution. The research was part of the CAViF project of the Succow Foundation and financed by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

New: Paludiculture newsletter

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28/06/2019 The Greifswald Mire Centre (GMC) would like to raise your awareness on the first issue of its paludiculture newsletter. With this newsletter the GMC aims to keep a growing community informed on peatlands and paludiculture. You will find news from research, practice, politics, as well as announcements of conferences and other events and recommended publications. The newsletter is issued at irregular intervals in German and English. If you wish to subscribe, please write an e-mail to communication(at)greifswaldmoor.de. It’s sufficient to put ‚Subscription for paludiculture newsletter‘ in the mail’s subject header. News on paludiculture send to this email address are also very welcome!
The newsletter is currently provided by the BOnaMoor Project.