Paludiculture is the productive land use of wet and rewetted peatlands that preserves peat soil, thereby minimizing carbon dioxide emissions and land subsidence with overall reduction of greenhouse gas emission. Wetlands and peatlands are highly modified, with 80-90% in degraded or disappeared conditions across most European regions. Paludiculture on former drainage-based agricultural land to paludiculture could be a game-changing transition if scaled up, supporting carbon sequestration and peat formation. While ongoing and completed projects have demonstrated the potential of smaller-scale pilots for paludiculture crops, there has been no large-scale demonstration to show farmers and land users the viability of industrial-scale paludiculture farming models. As each farmer faces unique challenges and operates under varying business models, understanding the full range of paludiculture options across different landscapes is crucial.
The PaluWise project addresses these challenges through four large-scale paludiculture demonstration sites, located in the Netherlands, Finland, Poland and the United Kingdom, which will serve as hubs for innovation, co-learning, and demonstration. Using a multi-actor approach, the demo sites will develop and showcase practical solutions for converting degraded organic soils to paludiculture, emphasizing replicability and scalability. Innovation within value chains is crucial to improve logistics and cost-effectiveness, addressing critical gaps in paludiculture scalability. Close collaboration with stakeholders, including farmers and industry partners, aligns with the broader project goal of engaging actors in the transition to sustainable peatland use, while also involving rural communities in co-creating a just transition.
The demo sites will be essential for gathering information on the best farming practices tailored to each crop, including insights into water management, crop and soil health management, and optimal harvesting times. Within this project, the Radboud Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences (RIBES) leads the work on multi-actor interaction within the paludiculture demonstration sites, with the overall aim of advancing knowledge in paludiculture production by ensuring the effectiveness of value chains and stakeholder involvement.