Sectoral activities: Peat Extraction
Strategy
The successful implementation of NbS in freshwater restoration relies heavily on collaboration and coordination across sectors due to their interdependencies and shared reliance on healthy ecosystems. Each Sectoral Strategy highlights key connections with others, emphasizing the need for integrated approaches to overcome challenges and leverage opportunities for transformation.
Peat Extraction intersects mostly with Agriculture and WSS, especially concerning water management and land-use practices. Effective peatland restoration stabilizes water flows, improves water quality, and enhances biodiversity, delivering benefits to these sectors. For instance, rewetting degraded peatlands can reduce agricultural runoff and improve water quality for WSS. However, challenges like income loss for farmers and the impact of rewetting on waterways require coordinated policies, financial incentives such as Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES), and joint planning efforts involving local communities, policymakers, and industry stakeholders.
Briefing
Degraded peatlands are a source of Greenhouse gases, but healthy ecosystems are carbon sinks and important habitats. Peat extraction sites may be a small proportion of Europe’s peatland in need of restoration, but the sector is an important source of restoration knowledge and techniques as well as a source of carbon emissions and impact on water, soil and biodiversity. MERLIN is working with the sector on climate and nature friendly after-use for past sites and wider landscape collaboration. Core stakeholders in our community of practice include peat extraction companies and their umbrella associations at European and national levels.
Roundtables
The MERLIN roundtables aim to build a Community of Practice linking the economic sector representatives with MERLIN scientific and implementation partners, MERLIN scientists meet the sector representatives three times during the four years of the project.
Roundtables 1: to understand the motivation and interest of sectors and the impact of nature restoration on the sectors.
Roundtables 2: to share examples of river restorations and their impacts on the sectors; to focus on the MERLIN cases and to discuss pro and contra arguments; to extend the number of involved stakeholders. Introduce cross-sectoral discussions, discuss policy levers and sectoral cooperation opportunities.
Roundtables 3: to discuss sectoral strategies including value chain impacts and cross sectoral needs to ensure MERLIN outputs speak to the sector.
Roundtable 1
The Peat Extraction roundtable was held on April 25, 2022. The meeting brought together 15 peat extraction experts from private and non-governmental organisations across Europe to deliberate on restoration issues in the sector. One of the key experts in the sector highlighted that this roundtable is the first time that a unique and different group of industry experts have come together to discuss restoration. A guest speaker, Asha Hingorani, shared the Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss Association’s (CSPMA) experience with restoration of peat extraction sites. The discussion was structured along four main themes, which emerged from a literature review, questionnaire responses and consultation with MERLIN peat extraction sector partner, the International Peatland Society (IPS).
Roundtable 2
The second Peat Extraction Sector roundtable brought together 23 experts from private and non-governmental organisations across Europe and abroad. The participants discussed the meaning of large-scale restoration and NbS for the sector and the policy changes, kind of financing and cross-sector cooperation needed to enable large-scale restoration. The participants noted that different member state conditions, including land ownership and use regulations, limit the potential to undertake large-scale restoration. However, a viable business case backed by clear legislation and strong collaboration between different stakeholders in the landscape could enable this.
Roundtable 3
The third Peat Extraction Roundtable brought together 24 experts from the peat extraction industry, involving private and non-governmental organisations. It focused on two key topics: 1) the draft strategy for the Peat Extraction Sector to support upscaling peatland restoration through rewetting and revegetation, and 2) the opportunities for the value chain of peat-based substrate and industry standards to support upscaling peatland restoration.