PaluWise. Paludiculture Demonstrations Providing Multi-Actor Approaches and Recommendations

PaluWise is an EU-funded initiative dedicated to the development of advanced solutions for the productive use of rewetted degraded peatland ecosystems. The EU aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by at least 55% by 2030. Paludiculture is the productive land use of wet and rewetted peatlands and can reduce these emissions by up to 70-80%. It thus has a large potential to support the EU’s climate targets and biodiversity strategy and still provide farmers and landowners with income, but only if the practice is scaled up. Currently, there are too few large-scale sites involving local actors that demonstrate industrial scale paludiculture farming models. Our 4 large-scale paludiculture sites in Finland, the Netherlands, Poland, and the United Kingdom will showcase best practices and solutions for converting degraded organic soils to paludiculture.

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The Foundation for Peatlands Restoration and Conservation will contribute to:

• Technology development and optimising production of biobased products from wetland biomass.

• Extracting additional value from main crops by testing production of liquid fertiliser using biomass from different network sites in Lithuania with a composting company.

• Seed production. Harvest, dry, and clean RCG seeds at network sites Baisogala (LT) and Ruja River Valley (LV). Evaluate potential for upscaling, generating extra income and supporting establishing new sites. Select breeds suitable for wet conditions. Assess seed quality by International Seed Testing Association.

• Mobilising decision-makers for upscaling paludiculture, increasing the economic competitiveness of paludiculture by creating enabling conditions for value-chain development, both on product level and as a carbon farming activity.

• Developing Policy Recommendations for paludiculture uptake, mobilising a community of paludiculture replicators by facilitating networking and knowledge sharing among stakeholders (farmers, landowners, investors, and decision-makers).

• Developing guidelines for paludiculture for Baltic region.

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All project partners: Luonnonvarakeskus​ (FIN), The James Hutton Institute (UK), Stichting Radboud Universiteit (NL), UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (UK), University of Warsaw (PL). Wetlands International - European Association (NL), Stichting Wetlands International (NL), F6S EU Tech Innovation Network Designated Activity Company (IE), University of Greifswald (DE),  Succow Foundation (DE), The Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire (UK),  Foundation for Peatlands Restoration and Conservation (LT), Lake and Peatland Research Centre (LV), Wetlands Conservation Centre (PL), Institute of Technology and Life Sciences (PL), Warsaw University of Life Sciences (PL), BEN VestaEco (PL), Welrent (NL), Saltyco Ltd (UK).