Managing soil carbon in Europe: paludicultures as a new perspective for peatlands.

Abstract

Conventional peatland agriculture and forestry is based on drainage, which enhances peat oxidation, causes massive greenhouse gas emissions and eventually destroys the peatland subsistence base. In contrast, paludicultures use biomass from wet and rewetted peatlands under conditions that maintain the peat body, facilitate peat accumulation and provide the associated natural peatland ecosystem services. In the temperate, subtropical and tropical zones, i.e. those zones of the world where plant productivity is high, peat is generally formed by roots and rhizomes, and peatlands by nature hold vegetation of which aboveground parts can be harvested without substantially harming peat conservation and formation. Besides traditional yields of food, feed, fibre and fuel, the biomass can be used as a raw material for industrial biochemistry, for producing high-quality liquid or gaseous biofuels and for further purposes like extracting and synthesizing pharmaceuticals and cosmetics. Some outstanding examples are introduced, including low-intensity grazing with water buffalos, biofuels from fens, common reed as industrial raw material and sphagnum farming for horticultural growing media. Paludicultures may support substantial co-benefits, including the preservation and sequestration of carbon, regulation of water dynamics (flood control) and quality, and conservation and restoration of typical peatland flora and fauna. They can provide sustainable income from sites that have been abandoned or degraded. In many cases, paludicultures can compete effectively with drainage-based peatland agriculture and forestry, certainly when external costs are adequately considered. Various technical and political constraints, however, still hamper large-scale implementation of this promising type of land use.

Effects of artificial land drainage on hydrology, nutrient and pesticide fluxes from agricultural fields – A review

“…Some level of consensus can be seen in the literature that subsurface drainage systems reduce erosion, although, depending on the local situation, they can have both reducing or enhancing effects on the hydrological flow components, nutrient and PPP losses, and greenhouse gas emissions (Blann et al, 2009;Holden, 2005). Other possible management alternatives to the renovation of drainage systems include the extensive use of cultures adapted to wet conditions or the complete renaturation of the sites (Joosten et al, 2015).…”

Transitioning to Sustainable Life on Land

“…It is called paludiculture (Latin 'palus': swamp) and defined as "the cultivation of biomass on wet and rewetted peatlands" (Wichtmann and Joosten 2007, p. 24). Since the beginning of the 2000s, the concept has been developed, tested in pilot projects and introduced into scientific discourse (for an overview e.g., Wichtmann et al 2016;Joosten et al 2014;Wichtmann and Joosten 2007). This made paludiculture, as an alternative to the unsustainable use of drained peatlands, visible.…”

Strategic Engagement in Institutions of Organic Farming in Indonesia

“…Regarding the question of the introduction of paludiculture on organic soils that are currently used for conventional agriculture, the policy community consists of a lot of different agricultural stakeholders. The conventional agriculture on peatlands is based on drainage, agriculture has a 'semi-desert' origin and heritage (Joosten 2014;Joosten et al 2014). However, in the current discussion on a CAP reform in Europe, COPA-COGECA-as the union of farmers' organizations and a highly influential interest group on a European level-endorses the introduction of paludiculture as an appropriate way to protect peatlands (Copa and Cogeca 2019).…”