Sustainable Peatland Futures

#EUKICON26 || Day 2 || 10:45 AM

This workshop addressed the question of how European peatlands can contribute to long-term climate mitigation while balancing biodiversity protection, water management, and socio-economic needs.

Summary

The workshop addressed the role of peatlands as indispensable ecosystems for climate mitigation, biodiversity protection and water management. Although peatlands are the largest t errestrial carbon sink, around half of Europe’s peatlands are degraded and emit significant amount of greenhouse gases. Facilitators Hugo Hénaff, Marina Skunca and Eliza Óhegyi from the Michael Succow Foundation, Eurosite and CEEweb for Biodiversity presented recent EU policy developments, including the Carbon Removal and Carbon Farming Regulation and the Nature Restoration Regulation, as well as examples from pioneer countries developing national peatland strategies and implementing paludiculture – the productive use of wet or rewetted peatlands through the cultivation of water-tolerant crops. Through interactive discussions participants explored commonly encountered challenges in various sectors and with storytelling they demonstrated how those can be solved with the multiple ecosystem services peatlands’ provide. e.g. carbon sink – offsetting GHG emissions, water purification, cooling effect, education.

Facilitators

• Eliza Óhegyi, CEEweb for Biodiversity

• Marina Škunca, Eurosite

• Hugo Henaff, Michael Succow Foundation