New at ClimatePartner: Protecting moors in Germany

New at ClimatePartner: Protecting moors in Germany

July 30, 2020

Apart from forests, moors are also very important for the climate. We are therefore happy to present a new project combination: the renaturation and rewetting of a moorland area in Northwestern Germany, which is realised in cooperation with our long-standing project partner Bergwaldprojekt e.V.

As long as they are intact, moors store large quantities of carbon. Overall, their significance for the climate is even greater than that of forests. In Germany, however, most of the bog areas have been drained for agricultural use or peat extraction. Thus, they release the CO2 stored over centuries within a few years.

We therefore support the rewetting and renaturation of the moor areas Eselsbett, Schwarzes Bruch and Sauberbachtal Bühlheim near Lichtenau in the district of Paderborn. They had been created in the last 10,000 years by high rainfall and damming up of the soil and were destroyed by peat extraction since the 19th century.

Now volunteers remove trees that originally did not belong in this moorland landscape and are now  draining too much water from the soil. They then close drainage ditches to improve the water balance. The project also aims to reconnect the three areas.

The area is located at the southern border of the northern European mire extension and is a habitat for many endangered plants and animals: round-leaved sundew, bog bilberry, cotton grass and peat moss species, meadow pipit, predatory shrike and numerous specialised insect species.

As with our other regional projects, we have combined the moor project with an internationally recognized carbon offset project for rainforest protection in the Brazilian Amazon region. In this way, your carbon offsetting is carried out correctly according to international guidelines.

The moor project is now available in the Footprintmanager. Ask your customer consultant for it!

Further information is available here.