Climate protection and nature conservation in peatland areas: How does this match with present day agricultural practice?

The northernmost German federal state of Schleswig-Holstein was selected as an example lowland area in central and western Europe with a high proportion of intensive agricultural use on peatlands that experience associated ecological and social functional problems. To get an overview of the current status of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the nature conservation value of the vegetation, a state-wide calculation of GHG emissions from peatlands was carried out. For that purpose, a method was developed linking different data sources such as biotope surveys, land use categories and geographical units to allow the estimation of GHG emissions at the landscape scale. Potential rewetting scenarios were then extrapolated to reach the national reduction goals for 2030. The annual GHG emissions from peatlands in Schleswig-Holstein amount to about 2.9 Mt (CO2-equivalent value). The highest emissions originate from intensively used agricultural areas. Abandoned and forested peatlands also have high GHG emissions, but their relative area is small. Vegetation types with conservation status (on fen peat) cover an area of only 650 ha, while bogs are present on 3,900 ha. To reach the reduction target, vast areas must be rewetted and agricultural use on peatlands has to be changed accordingly. We calculated that, in intensively used peatlands, such changes could lead to avoidance of GHG emissions (as CO2-equivalent) up to 1.8 Mt yr-1. This is more than twice the reduction target of the federal state.