image: Wetland in Finland
Credit: Louis Johansen Skovsholt, Aarhus University
Between 2nd and 10th September around 40 stakeholders involved in protecting and restoring peatlands and wetlands in Germany, the Netherlands and Finland joined a series of online workshops to develop impact plans that aim to influence policies and markets in each country, to scale up the restoration of degraded peatlands.
The meetings were organised by the EU-funded research project WET HORIZONS, the UNEP’s Global Peatlands Initiative, Wetlands International, and Eurosite - the European Land Conservation Network, who are coordinating the European Peatlands Initiative.
“The majority of participants were researchers from universities, research institutes and federal research agencies, covering social and natural science topics related to peatlands,” said Imogen Cadwaladr-Rimmer of Scotland's Rural College and organiser of the workshops. “We also had a small number of participants from environmental NGOs and associations, and some private companies too.”
Workshop attendees discussed ways to accelerate peatland protection and restoration in each country. By bringing together dedicated peatland experts, a lot of overlaps and potential collaboration opportunities came up, said Cadwaladr-Rimmer.
Focus areas included new policies to protect and restore peatlands, opportunities to integrate public funding across different policy domains (for example, integrating new initiatives under Europe’s Nature Restoration Law) and options to use public funding to de-risk and leverage private investment in restoration via carbon markets.
The resulting national impact plans aim to align policy goals with specific tasks, enable coordination and accountability️, support efficient funding and market innovation, and track progress and encourage collective ownership.
Several of these actions are now being explored with participants, including workshops to share evidence and experience between researchers and policy teams in Germany, the Netherlands and Finland with teams elsewhere in Europe. This includes Scotland, where blending public funding and private finance for peatland restoration is currently being piloted.
Other proposed activities include exploring links between paludiculture projects and carbon markets for peatland soils and biochar across Europe, organising an EU-wide workshop around national implementation of the EU Nature Restoration Law for peatlands, and briefings on the integration of remote sensing using radar and forest-to-bog restoration in peatland carbon markets.
By bringing together those already working on these topics in each country, Cadwaladr-Rimmer says that the workshops and subsequent impact plans will hopefully motivate future collaboration opportunities, generate shared learning opportunities, and foster a sense of shared commitment and responsibility towards the goals identified.
“We would like to maintain momentum and organise follow up meetings with relevant parties to keep important conversations going on how we may be able to learn from one another and achieve our goals of increasing peatland restoration and protection.”
Ongoing support will be provided by the WET HORIZONS team at Scotland’s Rural College, UNEP’s Global Peatlands Initiative and Wetlands International, with lessons contributing towards the design of an implementation phase in an ambitious international strategy, the Peatland Breakthrough.
Building on the first UNEP Global Peatlands Assessment, initiative brings together public and private partners to raise the profile of peatlands and enable action such as climate-friendly land uses like paludiculture. It represents a key step towards achieving climate and biodiversity targets while safeguarding ecosystems and livelihoods.