Peatlands and organic soils play an important role in protecting biodiversity and the climate, for example as habitats for endangered animal and plant species or carbon reservoirs. At the same time, the number of intact peatlands that can provide such ecosystem services has been declining for years due to drainage and intensive use. The protection and rewetting of peatland soils is therefore necessary to achieve Germany's climate protection goals.
Against this background, the Federal Government of Germany is developing a peatland protection strategy and aims to implement the first measures during this legislative period. On behalf of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN), the Institute for Rural Development Research (IfLS) has developed technical basics in the project 'Foundations of the implementation of a national peatland protection strategy'. The results from literature research and expert workshops now support the Federal Ministry for the Environment (BMU) in developing and implementing of a peatland protection strategy.
A synopsis with the most important contents and results was published on an updated BfN thematic page on peatland protection (in German). In addition, the BMU has published the discussion paper on the federal government's peatland protection strategy and calls for public participation (in German). Comments are still possible until 15.01.2021.
The preliminary final report on the project will be published shortly.
Contact persons at IfLS: Heike Nitsch (nitsch[at]ifls.de) and Jörg Schramek (schramek[at]ifls.de)
