Source: Corinna Gather/DEHSt

Peatlands do not look like ponds or lakes. Water bodies can be part of a peat landscape (wetlands), but the actual peat soil is not permanently flooded with water in an intact peatland. Rather, the groundwater is very close to the surface. Therefore, if you step on peat soil, a puddle may form in your footprint when the water level is high.

Peatlands were formed worldwide after the last ice age about 11,500 years ago. They are ecosystems that depend on an excess of rainwater or groundwater. When plants that grow on peat soils die, the plant parts fall to the ground and are sealed off from oxygen by the water. Therefore, unlike on mineral soils, for example in forests or cropland, this plant material cannot decompose completely. A compressed layer of plant material is created (peat), which grows a little larger with each piece of dead plant material. Because peat consists of organic material, peatlands are also called organic soils. The peat layer only grows in intact peatlands. In our latitudes, however, it only grows very slowly, an average of one millimetre per year. It therefore takes around 100 years to build up a peat layer of 10 centimetres.

Soil science distinguishes different forms of peat soil types and organic soils. In the context of climate protection, however, the terms peatland, peat soils and organic soils are usually used synonymously (as on this page) if they meet the criteria for organic soils according to climate reporting with regard to their thickness, carbon content and water saturation.

There are approximately 1.8 million hectares of peat soil in Germany. That is about five percent of Germany’s overall area. They are mainly distributed over five federal states (Länder) rich in peatlands: Lower Saxony, Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, Brandenburg, Bavaria and Schleswig-Holstein.

Source: Data basis: Tegetmeyer, C., Barthelmes, K.-D., Busse, S. & Barthelmes, A. (2020), Aggregated map of Germany's organic soils. Greifswald Moor Centrum-Schriftenreihe (Greifswald Peatland Centrum publication series) 02/2020 / Illustration: DEHSt

Source: Tegetmeyer, C., Barthelmes, K.-D., Busse, S. & Barthelmes, A. (2020), Aggregated map of Germany's organic soils, Greifswald Moor Centrum-Schriftenreihe (Greifswald Peatland Centrum publication series) 02/2020

Data basis: Tegetmeyer, C., Barthelmes, K.-D., Busse, S. & Barthelmes, A. (2020), Aggregierte Karte der organischen Böden Deutschlands. (Aggregated map of Germany's organic soils.) Greifswald Moor Centrum-Schriftenreihe (Greifswald Peatland Centrum publication series) 02/2020 / Illustration: DEHSt

Almost none of the peatlands in Germany are in their natural state any longer. They have been drained to make the areas usable for various purposes. More than 70 percent of the peat soils in Germany (cropland and grassland) is used for agriculture. The designations ‘woody plants’ and ‘wetlands’ are based on the vegetation and use of the areas. These categories include not only the few preserved near-natural peatlands, but also unused drained peat soils.

Source: National Greenhouse Gas Inventory 2022 for 1990 – 2020 / Illustration: DEHSt

Data basis: Nationales Treibhausgasinventar 2022 für die Jahre 1990 bis 2020 (National Greenhouse Gas Inventory 2022 for 1990 – 2020) / Illustration: DEHSt

Source: Corinna Gather/DEHSt

In Germany, over 90 percent of the peatlands are drained. For the layman, they are often no longer recognisable as peatlands in the landscape.

Drained peat soils cannot form new peat. Peat already formed dries out and is decomposed. The peat body of drained peatlands is therefore severely damaged (degraded) depending on the duration of the drying out. This has far-reaching consequences.

Degraded peat soils

• emit greenhouse gases
• lose the flora and fauna unique to wetlands
• lose nutrients and yields on these soils decline
• lose their "sponge effect" and excess water is more difficult to absorb during flooding. In addition, the soil sinks

Source: Dr Friederike Erxleben/DEHSt

Areas can only be rewetted if sufficient water is available. It may be sufficient on some sites to abandon or dismantle existing drainage systems and supplement them with pumping systems and targeted impoundment. Water can also be actively channelled into the area, for example by dismantling or converting the straightening of nearby streams.

However, such an approach is not always possible. Moreover, in periods of drought, which are increasing and lasting longer due to climate change, additional areas dry out. Not only drained peat soils, but also mineral soils can become drier than is good for the vegetation for large parts of the year. This can lead to distribution difficulties. Wet peat soils can have a positive effect on the water balance of adjacent mineral areas. However, if water for rewetting is already lacking, this effect cannot be brought about.

It is therefore essential to plan the water balance and management carefully, also when identifying and selecting areas that need to be rewetted particularly urgently and are especially suitable for rewetting in terms of water availability.

When planning and approving new construction projects, care should be taken to ensure that they are not implemented on peat soils. This would stand in the way of rewetting or at least make it more difficult.

Approximately 90,000 hectares of peat soil currently lie directly under settlement areas. Some roads and motorways are also built on peat soils which represents an obstacle to rewetting. In addition, there are settlements and infrastructure that are not built directly on peat soils but are at a similar height to peat soils. Here, too, rewetting is difficult because the water level on these areas would then also rise. This could be mediated only if appropriate precautions were taken through targeted water management (for example, relocation of pumping stations and ditches etc.).

Degraded peat soils are predominantly used for agriculture. This use is only possible because the soils are drained. After rewetting, it is not possible to continue the previous traditional agricultural management (for example potato or maize cultivation or grazing cows). All buildings (stables, barns, milking facilities and processing equipment) are no longer feasible for use on rewetted peatland and would usually have to be demolished. The same applies to all buildings and land uses which, although not on peat soil, are at the same level and would therefore also be affected by the rise in groundwater level.

Currently there is no obligation for owners to rewet peat soils. Therefore, rewetting can only be carried out if all those affected agree (owners, land managers, tenants, neighbours). Even if everything speaks in favour of rewetting peat soils for climate protection reasons, rewetting is a major step from the point of view of those affected and can be associated with various personal disadvantages: apart from the planning, procedural and implementation efforts and the costs involved, a rewetted area can no longer be used in the same way as before when it was drained. This means that people who make a living from farming on degraded peat soils would have to give up their previous livelihood and economic basis.

It therefore seems unhelpful to just criticise farmers working on drained peatlands. Instead, information must be provided, both, on the negative climate impact of dry peatland management as well as on the possibilities, procedures and chances of rewetting. Rewetting must be shown to be a necessary goal for climate protection in the long term in order to make it possible for farmers to plan for further investment decisions. In addition, alternative forms of use and the accompanying sources of income from rewetted peat soils must be identified, tested and supported. This also includes establishing utilisation chains for products from paludibiomass and raising awareness of the importance of peat soils for climate protection throughout society. An adjustment of the legal framework and financial incentives can create predictability for those affected and thus facilitate rewetting and conversion to other forms of use.

Various expert opinion reports must be prepared so that rewetting can be carried out. They will need to consider the height profile of the area in question and the neighbouring areas, water availability and necessary structural changes. A lead time of several years must be expected before rewetting can begin since a number of permits (water law, building law, etc.) must be applied for. The respective federal state (Land) is the competent body for the state permits. This lead time could be shortened if the approval procedures were bundled or streamlined in terms of bureaucracy.

Costs are incurred not only for the actual measures on the site, but also for the planning and process activities. In addition to these actual rewetting costs, the following aspects must also be considered in very brief terms:

Rewetting is not economically viable from a land managers’ economic point of view as long as the subsequent use does not lead to a comparable profit as the cultivation of drained areas. In addition, investments made for the management of dry peat soils will be lost.

Investments in the rewetting of peat soils are worthwhile from a macroeconomic point of view, since the economic damage caused by the emissions from the drained areas must be taken into account.

These aspects must be considered when discussing and deciding how measures should be designed and financed to achieve ambitious peatland climate protection.

Rewetted areas can be restored – either by leaving the area to its own devices or by means of targeted nature conservation measures (for example targeted settlement of peatland-typical species). Protected animals (for example bird species such as the aquatic warbler), plants (for example the grass species sedge) and insects (for example the Agriades optilete or cranberry blue butterfly), which depend on the unique ecosystems of intact wetlands, can find a habitat. Restored areas thus significantly contribute to the protection of species richness and biodiversity. The areas can also be used as recreational or nature education areas.

Source: Dr Friederike Erxleben/DEHSt

Rewetted areas enable an adapted form of agriculture and forestry giving added value by using the land in paludiculture. This is a form of use in which the peat body is preserved or can continue to grow. In cultivated paludiculture, sedges, reeds, reedmace, peat moss or black alder are cultivated as species that grow on wet sites. In pasture paludiculture, the areas are used for grazing by animals that are adapted to high water levels like water buffaloes.

Paludiculture also restores peatland ecosystems and provides habitats for typical peatland flora and fauna. However, nature conservation is not the primary goal of this type of after-use, which can lead to conflicting goals that need to be openly discussed and balanced. The effects of paludiculture use on climate, biodiversity and other protected goods are being investigated in various research projects, including those of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation.

The option of using rewetted areas in paludiculture offers an incentive for farms to voluntarily implement the rewetting of peat soils, which is necessary for climate protection policy, more quickly and on a larger scale.

Increasingly, other approaches to the use of rewetted areas are being discussed. The installation of photovoltaic systems on rewetted areas meets interest, but also scepticism, concerning both technical feasibility and ecological and economic sense, as well as permissibility under nature conservation law.

In 2020, drained peat soils emitted 53 million tonnes of CO2 equivalents (CO2eq) (more than 7 percent of emissions in Germany). About 1.3 million hectares of drained peat soils are used for agriculture as cropland and grassland and account for almost 80 percent of emissions from peat soils. To reduce these emissions, it is necessary to re-wet drained peat soils. Rewetting peat soils can save about 20 tonnes of CO2 equivalents per hectare per year. However, rewetted areas cannot continue to be used for conventional agriculture. They can be abandoned or used for nature conservation. Paludiculture can enable an economic follow-up use. Based on agriculture and silviculture, paludiculture ("palus" – Latin for "swamp, morass") refers to the agricultural and forestry use of wet and rewetted peatlands while preserving or building up the peat body, for example by cultivating sedges, reeds, reedmace, peat moss or alder. Rewetting requires the cooperation of the landowners and farmers. This is associated with numerous challenges and a fundamental change in management and must therefore be encouraged.

The DUENE non-profit institute prepared two background papers within the framework of the departmental research project ‘Incentives for paludiculture to implement the 2030 and 2050 climate protection targets’ (Project Number 3719 42 509 0).

Which criteria and concepts for peatland climate protection projects are environmentally sound? Under what conditions can certificates be issued for the climate protection successes of peatland climate protection projects? These are the issues addressed in a 2019 study by the German Environment Agency (UBA) entitled ‘Designing an International Peatland Carbon Standard: Criteria, Best Practices and Opportunities’, which looks into the standards for peatland climate protection projects both in the voluntary market for greenhouse gas offsetting and under Article 7 of the Paris Agreement, as well as under CORSIA and in future commitment markets at the international level.

Most peatlands in Germany have changed from carbon reservoirs to greenhouse gas emitters due to agricultural use. The paper describes options to reduce emissions, illuminates the future of the peatlands and lists necessary steps to improve the situation.

Intact peatlands are effective climate protectors and important for biodiversity. Although they make up only 3 percent of the world's land area, they store twice as much carbon as forests. If they are destroyed, however, they emit large amounts of greenhouse gases. A 2017 advisory project by the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) and the German Environment Agency (UBA) shows how the European Union can do more for his peatlands.

How to reduce greenhouse gases from peatlands and forests
What (political and economic) options are there for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from peatlands and forests? This question is addressed in a 2016 German Environment Agency (UBA) study entitled ‘Peatlands, Forests and the Climate Architecture: Setting Incentives through Markets and Enhanced Accounting’ which looks at measures at both international (UNFCCC) and EU level.

The measures analysed include

• the establishment of a ‘Peatland market mechanism’
• the improvement of the reporting and accounting framework
• the establishment of separate commitment targets for Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF)
• aspects of linking trading systems (linking)
• strategies for the integration of LULUCF emissions at EU level
• voluntary market systems

Finally, the study evaluates the different options based on selected criteria including environmental impact, costs and political feasibility, and makes final recommendations for the Federal Government and the EU. Special attention is directed to the option of developing an international peatland market mechanism and, within the EU context, to the option of including LULUCF emissions in the Effort Sharing Decision (ESD) framework and linking transactions under the ESD to green peatland investment programmes.

Despite the importance of peatlands for climate protection, there has been insufficient experience to date on how peatland and climate protection can be systematically interlinked. The aim of this study is to investigate whether and how national peatland climate protection projects can be supported via the carbon market by means of a fund model. In this context, the extent to which the voluntary market for emission certificates can be used is investigated.