An archetypal Dutch landscape: grassy meadows intersected with ditches, weteringen and canals. But because the water levels in peat meadows are kept artificially low, the peat breaks down and goes into the air as CO2. This causes soil subsidence, which causes problems with homes, roads and underground pipes, while water management becomes increasingly costly.
To meet national and international goals around greenhouse gas emissions and restore nature, higher groundwater levels are necessary. Cows are now kept on many peat soils, which provides farmers with an income and provides us with dairy. Can this still be done if you rewet the peat? Or are other earning models possible?
In two Frisian peat meadow areas, experiments with Nature-based Solutions aimed at different types of land use and water management will be carried out in the coming years, by rewetting the peat meadow. NL2120 investigates in the Peat Innovation Polder Hegewarren and with the agricultural cooperative the Akkrumer Goedland how to rewet the peat, what effects this has on greenhouse gases, nature and water and how to earn a living here.
Economic Opportunities
NL2120 sees opportunities in rewetting, especially when done in a nature-inclusive manner. If the groundwater level is raised sufficiently, this reduces peat decomposition and greenhouse gas emissions and halts land subsidence. Wetland restoration combined with more extensive, nature-inclusive agriculture can lead to cleaner water in ditches, with more nature in and around the ditches.
In the Hegewarren, NL2120 is investigating what dairy farming on wet peat can look like and what it delivers in terms of euros, species and environmental quality. Wet soil decreases the production and forage quality of grass. When it gets very wet, cows and machinery have a harder time getting onto the land. Moreover, it appears difficult to get peat wet enough without flooding grassland. It is also a matter of finding the best way to fit measures such as extensively managed edges into the landscape and the farm.
An alternative may be to develop new "wet crops" or paludiculture. This involves growing marsh plants, such as cranberries or blueberries for food, or fibre for building material, such as cattail, reed and other species. These are new crops, so it is not yet clear how they can be grown effectively, efficiently and at scale. Demand is also not yet sufficiently developed for some crops, such as building materials made from fibre. What are the impacts on greenhouse gases, water and species, if grown at scale? And is there something to be gained from it? To all these questions, NL2120 seeks answers in the Hegewarren. For the time being, bulrush is grown here; from 2026 reed, peat moss and other crops will be added.
A third solution being explored is to combine humidification with other social tasks. In the Akkrumer Goedland, farmers, businesses and citizens are working together on energy generation and housing for the local community. The idea is that farmers on peatland use their land for this purpose, thus obtaining a new operating model. But how do you develop this nature-inclusively and on wet peat? How do you organise the cooperation between farmers and the village? And if this goes well, how do you divide the joys and burdens? The goal is to realize a cooperative estate business, with a lot of attention for 'mienskip', nature and quality of life.