News
2024
Peatlands & Brazil
New briefing paper and perspective for "peatland breakthrough" at COP30
22/11/24 As UNFCCC COP29 is ending in Baku, Azerbaijan, preparations are gathering pace for the next COP – which will take place in Brazil. Scientists are already now pointing out the little-noticed but huge climate potential of the peatlands of Brazil. The country’s most carbon dense ecosystem is nearly unprotected and tremendously threatened by large scale agriculture and deforestation, a new briefing paper by the Greifswald Mire Centre and partners finds.
In Brazil there are 17,000 km² covered with peat and another 209,000 km² with peat occurring in patches. These peatlands are distributed in Amazonia, the Cerrado savanna, the coastal areas plus in mountainous areas and highlands. Clearly, the Brazilian Amazonia, e.g. the Rio Negro basin and along river valleys, is Brazil's peatland hotspot.
The United Nations Environmental Agency (UNEP) estimates their carbon stock in peatlands is 39 Gt. It also assumes 3,540 km² of organic soils currently to be under land use, causing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of at least 18 Mt CO2-e. Scientists suspect this number to be an understimation. Brazil's peatlands also serve as water buffer which is severly needed for the dry season and prevention of wildfires.
However, Brazil does not report carbon emissions from land use on organic soils to the UNFCCC. Greenhouse gas emissions resulting from e.g. peatland drainage, drought, peat fires, from agriculture and urban encroachment remain unaccounted for. Also, wetland protection in general is currently excluded from the most important Brazilian nature conservation law, the federal Brazilian Native Vegetation Protection (LPVN) Law (12,651, May 2012). Thus, activities with negative impacts such as cattle grazing and extraction of water for domestic purposes remain allowed in wetlands.
"Brazil’s peatlands are virtually not recognized nor protected, and seriously threatened by industrial scale agriculture, like soy and cattle production, deforestation and climate change. We urgently need to better understand and protect peatlands in Brazil.” says Felix Beer, one of the authors of the new briefing paper.
Since peatlands are spread over incredibly vast areas and peatland science is a rather young discipline in Brazil, the extent of peatlands there is subject to large uncertainties. There is a tremendous need to increase monitoring efforts, legal protection, conservation measures and to close knowledge gaps etc.. Alexandre Christofaro Silva, Professor of Forest Engineering at the Federal University of Jequitinhonha and Mucuri valley, demands: “The conservation of Brazilian peatlands is essential not only for traditional people and regional communities, but to humanity. At COP30 even in Brazil we need to have them on the agenda, and fight to stop their anthropization (fire, drainage, pasture) as we fight to stop cutting Amazonian rain forests.”
In respect to next year's climate summit, Cinthia Soto Golcher, responsible for Climate Change Advocacy at Wetlands International, states: “To reach the Paris Agreement goals on mitigation and adaptation, drained peatlands must be restored and rewetted. This cannot be achieved by only a few actors, but needs the mobilization of national and international stakeholders and resources. Hence, we view COP 30 in Brazil as a historic opportunity -and responsibility- for the international community to advance a significant and transformative chapter for peatlands in which they are seriously considered as part of the path towards a resilient 1,5C planet by 2050.”
Global Peatland Hotspot Atlas
Launch & call to action at COP29
21/11/24 Brandnew, incredibly informative and well designed: the new Global Peatland Hotspot Atlas launched in a peatland side event Side Event at the climate summit COP29 in Baku today! It presents the most up-to-date data on world’s peatlands in a Global Peatland Map 2.0 visualizing global threats and opportunities for peatlands.
That’s new:
- regional maps on all six continents
- thematic maps on biodiversity, permafrost, water supply and more
- maps on degradation, greenhouse gas emissions, peatland use, environmental risks etc
This Global Peatland Hotspot Atlas is a call to action to place peatlands at the heart of the global environmental agenda! It enables decision makers to scope potential regions for conservation, restoration, and sustainable management, since time to act is now.
The Atlas was issued by UNEP as a product of the Global Peatlands Initiative with maps of the Greifswald Mire Centre.
4th RRR-conference Sept.2025
First information on the programme, excursions, etc.
20/11/24 Jointly organised by Greifswald Mire Centre and Thünen Institute the 4th RRR Conference "Renewable Resources from Wet and Rewetted Peatlands" will take place in Greifswald from 23rd – 26th September 2025.
Rewetting peatlands and sustainable land-use concepts are key to tackling climate change. To advance peatland solutions the 4th RRR Conference aims to converge science and practice and invites scientists, landowners and land users, as well as people from administration, business, arts and design, policy and conservation, and other interested people.
Join us to take a look and celebrate 25 years of paludiculture advancements and to dive into topics like governance, biodiversity, biomass utilisation, and photovoltaics on rewetted peatlands Participate in workshops, poster sessions and exhibitions. An entire afternoon is dedicated to highlight practical experiences. Thus, contractors, manufacturers, and other stakeholders, will have the opportunitiy to showcase their products in an exhibition and to present their projects in pitches on a stage
In addition, excursions will lead to a Typha farming site in the Peene valley, a coastal flood peatland restoration with grazing (Karrendorfer Wiesen) and to buffalo grazing in coastal peatlands (Darss peninsula) - all three sites are located in Mecklenburg-Western Pommerania. An excursion on Sphagnum paludiculture is destined to Hankhauser Moor in Lower Saxony.
Registration will be possible from beginning of 2025 und abstracts may submitted until 31.st May 2025. You may find all information in detail on the RRR-conference website.
If you would like to contribute by offering a workshop or showcasing your project at the exhibition you my contact info@rrr2025.com.
Peatland sound & light art
Vernissage EIN:FLUSS:RAUM:MOOR
30/10/24 EIN:FLUSS:RAUM:MOOR, the joint exhibition by MONAS-Collective and Greifswald Moor Centrum, can be seen from 31.10.-7.12.2025 in the Spielhalle Kunst in Greifswald. It shows the mire as a sound and light artwork inspired by Caspar David Friedrich and his fascination with landscape. In the painter's anniversary year, the exhibition uses a combination of climate data, audio recordings, light projections and exhibits to invite visitors to experience the beauty and significance of peatland landscapes in an unusual way.
The artists captured the sound using soil microphones in the Kieshofer Moor and the Karrendorfer Wiesen. Together with data from greenhouse gas measurements by GMC scientists, these are converted into light pulses in the exhibition. The visitors present also influence the system, as the installation also measures CO2 values in the room in real time, for example.
The sound and image sculpture can be experienced free of charge from Wednesday to Sunday, 11 am to 5 pm.
There will be a free guided tour of the exhibition on 9th November at 2 pm. On 19th November, students of landscape ecology at the University of Greifswald will be presenting how climate issues can be communicated in other artistic formats in the Spielhalle Kunst. The Caspar David Friedrich Anniversary Office is offering a peatland walk combined with a final guided tour on 23rd November starting at 1 pm.
Paludiculture in Ukraine
New compendium by UNDP with expertise from Greifswald
14/10/24 Northern Ukraine became the focal point of an ambitious project aimed at peatland restoration and climate protection. The Michael Succow Foundation (MSF), partner in Greifswald Mire Centre, jointed the United Nations Development Programme in Ukraine (UNDP) to provide expert support on paludiculture for the project “Promoting sustainable livestock management and ecosystem conservation in Northern Ukraine” funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the FOLUR platform (The Food Systems, Land Use and Restoration Impact Programme).
The project aims to transform 3 million hectares of land into a model for ecologically conscious agriculture, with a focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, enhancing soil fertility, and protecting endangered species. It embraces paludiculture, a sustainable form of wetland farming designed to reduce carbon emissions by rewetting and cultivating peatlands. Wendelin Wichtmann (Michael Succow Sitftung) was commissioned to assess its feasibility in Ukraine, with Olga Denyshchyk securing alignment with Ukrainian conditions. Their work included conducting a comprehensive desk study and producing a compendium of findings, which was made available in Ukrainian.
The compendium is intended for farmers, representatives of local communities, the scientific community, and civil society. Its purpose is to provide a scientific basis for the implementation of internationally recognized environmentally-oriented agricultural practices, particularly on wet peatlands, adapted to the unique conditions of Ukraine. The compendium also provides recommendations for the application of paludiculture practices on restored peatlands, combining environmentally-oriented solutions with economic efficiency.This is the first collection in Ukraine that contains scientific information about paludiculture a sustainable land-use method, already being implemented in European Union member states.