Peatlands are ecosystems for a variety of specialised plant and animal species and serve as important natural carbon reservoirs. They also have a regulating effect on the water and nutrient balance and a cooling evaporation effect, which is important for the local and regional climate. In the meantime, around 95 % of the original peatland areas have been drained, peated, cultivated and used for agriculture or forestry. In addition to the protection of still intact peatlands, the restoration and sustainable management of previously drained peatland soils are therefore important contributions for protecting biodiversity and the mitigation of climate change.

In order to address these needs in a more targeted manner, the Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV) published the first National Peatland Protection Strategy in September 2021. The main objective of this strategy is to implement near-natural flood prevention as well as climate adaptation and mitigation through peatland protection and restoration by also considering the economic prospects of the local population.

Together with DUENE e.V., Ecologic Institute supports the implementation of the National Peatland Protection Strategy with the following project activities:

• Design and development of a project and programme database and comprehensive identification of various projects and actors in the field of peatland protection
• Creation of a research portal for the implementation of the National Peatland Protection Strategy
• Planning and implementation of targeted communication products to address different actors, sectors, levels of action and projects
• Planning and implementation of different event formats, e.g. status colloquia and topic-related workshops
• Technical support of the project

The Ecologic Institute team is responsible for the overall coordination of the project. In addition, it leads the work packages on web design, communication and events. The client of the project is the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN).