Peatlands on the UNFCCC-Agenda in Paris

Side events on restoring and rewetting

1/12/2015  Lecturing at two side events GMC-expert Hans Joosten will be part of the UNFCCC COP21 in Paris.

At the high-level panel debate "Safe the Peat for Less Heat" organised by Wetlands International, GMC and other partners, Joosten will talk about "Peatland issues, potential and options for climate mitigation" at 1st December 15:15-16:15 o'clock at the Netherlands Climate Pavilion. For more information please see the "Briefing paper: accelerating action to Save Peat for Less Heat!"

The UNFCCC side-event ’Reducing GHG emissions by restoring and rewetting peatlands‘ is organized by the Nordic Council of Ministers (NCMR)at Wednesday 2nd December 2015 between 12.15 - 13:45 o'clock at the Nordic Pavillion Hall 2B. Joosten’s lecture on ’The role of drained peatlands in GHG emissions and opportunities for accounting under the new activity ’Wetland Drainage and Rewetting‘ under the Kyoto Protocol‘ is one of the side event’s eight contributions.

German Environmental Award

Michael Succow honoured for lifetime achievement

08/11/2015  The German Federal Environmental Foundation (DBU) has bestowed GMC member Prof. Michael Succow with its “Honorary Lifetime Achievement Award”. The German Federal President Joachim Gauck presented the award at the award ceremony in Essen at 8th November 2015. As Deputy Minister for Environment, Nature Protection and Water Management of the GDR at the time of great political change in Germany Succow did grasp the historical chance for nature protection. He and his fellows managed to have the "Programme of National Parks" adopted in the very last concluding session of the GDR-Council of Ministers in 1990. Thus, 12.1% of the former GDR were put under temporary and 5.5% under permanent protection. For this coup Michael Succow received the Right Livelihood Award and used the endowment as a basis for his foundation. In the 20 year long history of the German Environmental Award the Honorary Lifetime Achievement Award was granted only five times. It was for example bestowed upon Michail Gorbatschow and Prof. Heinz Sielmann.

How the palm oil industry might go green

GMC-experts among scientists setting standards

01/08/2015  GMC-experts are among 50 scientists who are currently drafting the new "High Carbon Stock Study" supposed to make the palm oil industry switch to more sustainable ways. They are defining which sort of lands should be considered off-limits for palm oil cultivation, as for example and first and for all, peatlands. The study commissioned by the Sustainable Palm Oil Manifesto group met high media coverage including reports of The Economist , nature , Reuters/yahoo news and The Economist/youtube. The spread of oil-palm plantations in recent years has destroyed swathes of tropical forest in low-lying tropical areas of south-east Asia and Africa, releasing much of their trapped carbon into the atmosphere, chasing off indigenous communities and putting migrant workers under appalling conditions. To set green standards GMC-member Dr. Alexandra Barthelmes, in charge of the GMC's Global Peatland Database, contributed to the Practical guidance to locate and delineate peatlands and other organic soils in the tropics. Prof. Hans Joosten is member of the Technical Committee and co-author of the main report.

Guardian reports on "Swamp power"

How the world’s wetland can combat climate change

20/07/2015  After touring paludiculture projects in Germany and Poland guided by experts of the GMC Guardian-correspondent Arthur Neslen now issued his report on peatland rewetting, paludiculture and climate change mitigation. For an entertaining read on all aspects between reed crop and Ramsar Convention go to Swamp power: how the world's wetlands can help stop climate change.

Open for public comment

Palm oil industry present a draft synthesis report

3/7/2015   A Draft Synthesis Report of a „High Carbon Stock Study (HCSS)“ of the palm oil industry is now online and open for public comment. This study on carbon stocks is commissioned to independent experts to make the upcoming massive expansion of palm oil cultivation in Southeast-Asia as well as West- and Central Africa ecologically more sustainable and socially more compliant. The protection of carbon sinks in vegetation and soil is one of the key issues. GMC member Dr. Alexandra Barthelmes is in charge of the GMC's Global Peatland Database and contributed to a report on practical guidance to locate and delineate peatlands and other organic soils in the tropics. Prof. Hans Joosten is member of the Technical Committee and co-author of the main report.

“Peatlands and Forests in the Climate Architecture”

DEHSt puts presentations online

29/6/2015   Silvestrum VoF und DUENE e.V.,partner im GMC, presented results of their joint research project „Peatlands and Forests in the Climate Architecture” at a workshop of the German Emissions Trading Authority (DEHSt) at the 4th of June 2015 in Bonn during a side event at SBSTA42 to the UNFCCC . The DEHSt has now put the report and presentations online. “Peatlands and Forests in the Climate Architecture” describes political and economic possibilities for regulating climate change mitigation from peatlands and forests. The research project was financed by the Federal Environment Agency.

Small bird, great dissertation

Doctor’s thesis on the Aquatic Warbler

29/6/2015   End of June Cosima Tegetmeyer has successfully defended her dissertation „The Aquatic Warbler in the Djoudj National Park area – Aspects of its wintering ecology”. The globally threatened Aquatic Warbler is breeding in fen mires of Eastern and Central Europe and wintering in West-Africa. Tegetmeyer’s dissertation is a good example for linking science and practice at the GMC: Her scientific results yielded four publications in peer-reviewed journals and at the same time helped improving the land management for Aquatic Warbler protection by the Djoudi National Park Administration.

Guiding “The Guardian“ in rewetted areas

English daily paper plans extensive report

19/6/2015   From 15th-16th June experts of the GMC took Arthur Neslen, Europe environment correspondent at the Guardian, on a tour of paudiculture projects in Germany and Poland. Neslen is currently researching for extensive reporting on peatland rewetting, paludiculture and climate change mitigation. The Brussels based journalist visited reed beds in Rozwarowo, East of Świnoujście/Poland where reed is cultivated for thatching. In the Peenevalley and at Lake Kummerow, both in North-Estern Germany, Neslen gained impressions on further sustainable utilisation of rewetted areas(paludiculture) e.g. of pasture with water buffaloes on rewetted polder Rustow-Randow or on peatland meadows near Neukalen. Sedges, canary grass and reed growing here are used for energy generation in Germany’s first fen biomass heating plant in Malchin near Greifswald. It provides heating for 650 houses, the local kindergarden and a school. At Neukalen and Malchin Neslen got first hand information by peatland farmer and plant manager Ludwig Bork.

Nordic Council calling for more peatland protection

Ramsar Convention welcomes statement ahead of COP 12

In a joint statement the Nordic Council of Ministers for the Environment is calling the 12th Meeting of the Conference of Contracting Parties to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands (COP12) to preserve peatlands for climate change regulation, conservation of biodiversity and providing ecosystem services. The statement is based on a recent report ‘Peatlands and Climate in a Ramsar context - A Nordic-Baltic Perspective’, which was prepared for the Nordic Council by experts of Greifswald University (Germany), partner in the GMC, and Risager Consult (Denmark). The Ramsar Convention already welcomed the statement in a press release ahead of the COP 12 from 1st-9th June in Punta del Este (Uruguay).

Paludiculture on Expo 2015 in Milan

Short film in the German Pavilion

A short film on paludiculture is presented in the German Pavilion at this year’s Expo in Milan. In the thematic area on climate the research on paludiculture at the GMC is shown as one of the projects for climate friendly and sustainable agriculture as well as a contribution of the federal state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Visitors can select and watch the film on an interactive platform. The German Pavilion at the Expo Milan 2015 wants to present innovative ideas from Germany addressing the basis of the world’s future nutrition. The Expo is dedicated to the motto „Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life". Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania will have a special week at the pavilion from 18th to 25th May.

High level study-tour

Guiding Russian officials for more peatland conservation and rewetting

In April 2015 a study tour led high level officials of ministries from the regions Moscow and Tver to restored peatland sites in Germany and the Netherlands to inform about methods and application of rewetting. MoorFutures, the world’s first voluntary carbon credits from peatland rewetting, were presented as an instrument of climate change financing at a workshop organised by the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) in Bonn. Whether this instrument, which was partly developed by experts of the Greifswald Mire Centre (GMC), might possibly be applied in Russia as well, was subject to lively discussion. In the Netherlands the delegation visited the headquarters of Wetlands International for a project partner meeting and the large scale restoration site Bargerveen at the border of Dutch-German border. The participants were impressed by this rewetting project and the returning nature. The study tour was organised by Wetland International and the Michael Succow Foundation, partner in the GMC, within the project Peatland restoration in Russia.

Historian at the Greifswald Peatlands Library

Researching Russian rural and environmental history

Katja Bruisch from the German Historical Institute Moscow is interested in the rural and environmental history of modern Russia focussing on the interplay between ideology, knowledge and politics. After a PhD dissertation on agricultural experts in the late Tsarist and the early Soviet periods, she is now preparing a research project on peat exploitation in 20th century Russia. Using the Greifswald Peatland and Nature Conservation International Library (PeNCIL) she is studying questions of peatland ecology and conservation.