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Foundations for a bogland protection strategy by the Federal Government


In the 2018 coalition agreement, the governing parties agreed to develop a bogland protection strategy for the federal government. The strategy should set a national framework for action in soil and biotope protection. On behalf of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU), the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) therefore initiated a research and development project to elaborate the technical basis for this strategy and commissioned the IfLS to work on it. One aim of the project was to identify starting points for how the federal government can and should support bogland protection and become active in it itself. The IfLS based its work on literature research and expert workshops. The preparation of the bogland protection strategy itself was not part of the project.

The final report on the project, which was completed in January 2021, has now been published. It provides an introductory overview of the distribution and use of bogland in Germany, summarises findings on the environmental services of boglands and identifies existing goals, strategies and agreements with links to bogland protection. It characterises fields of action and needs for action and, building on overarching considerations on the objective of a strategy at the federal level and on available instruments, formulates concrete starting points and recommendations for bogland protection in the areas of regulatory law, funding policy and remuneration, research and development, educational measures and public relations work, as well as data basis and monitoring.

The results of the project were incorporated into a BMU discussion paper on a peatland protection strategy in autumn 2020. However, a bogland protection strategy coordinated between the ministries at federal level failed in August 2021 and the BMU subsequently published a national strategy itself instead.

The protection and rewetting of bogland soils is necessary to achieve Germany's climate protection goals. In the next legislative period, the issue of bogland protection will therefore have to be taken up again to a greater extent.

The final report is available here.

Contact persons at IfLS: Heike Nitsch (nitsch[at]ifls.de) and Jörg Schramek (schramek[at]ifls.de)