Paludi4All

Paludiculture is the productive use of wet and rewetted peatlands and considered a sustainable peatland management technique. Given large emissions from drained peatlands, it is crucial to climate action. However, at the moment it is a niche innovation limited to few pilot sites. To realize its potential, paludiculture needs to be further developed and up scaled in the next decades. The transition from drainage-based peatland use to paludiculture is, however, a complex sustainability transition task that goes far beyond raising water levels. It may learn from and refine traditional uses of wetland plants and wet peatlands. Also, the societal transformation in its economic and socio-cultural dimensions must be accompanied intensively by co-creative processes of knowledge generation and decision-making. To address these challenges, Paludi4all aims to understand the socio-economic, climate and environmental aspects of paludiculture. The project will holistically assess the potentials for climate change mitigation, environmental protection and creating jobs and income in rural areas, and identify innovative solutions for upscaling paludiculture in Europe. This will be achieved through Paludi4All’s interdisciplinary, co-creation-based systems approach that addresses the farm-, value chain-, and market levels and the governance context shaping these levels.