peatlands 1 taitto.indd - International Peat Society

protected and maintained as “Lower
Saxonian landscape“.
Peat production areas are required
to be prepared for nature conservation.
This means that, usually, they
are rewetted and restored when peat
extraction has fi nished. Today, about
12,000 ha of former peat production
sites are on their way to become mires
and wetlands. The areas currently
under production, amounting to about
30,000 ha, will be prepared for a natural
development afterwards.
The valuable wet meadows threatened
by intensive agricultural use shall
be maintained, developed and integrated
with the protection areas. Today,
the large wet meadows are managed
in a way so as not to disturb meadow
birds. For instance, the populations
of the curlew (Numenius arquata),
the redshank (Tringa totanus) and the
black-tailed godwit (Limosa limosa) were
strengthened in recent years.
One more example is the re-settlement
of the crane, that has found its
regular nesting areas in the peatlands.
Water fowl, such as the teal (Anas crecca),
is a regular guest in the re-wetted
areas. Also butterfl ies and dragonfl ies,
but also reptiles, can often be seen.
The high importance of the raised
bogs as habitats of very valuable bioeconosises
(species thriving together)
of typical peatland plants and animals
has led to the designation of representative
and important conservation
areas in Germany and in Europe.
Areas restored after peat-production
also belong to this group.
The raised bogs have been made
accessible and thereby tangible and
understandable for all people interested
in them by creating bog walks,
look-outs, information centres and
peat trains. The conservation of the
peatlands is widely accepted within the
local population.
Wise Use for 25 years
In many regards, the mire conservation
programme of Lower Saxony
already carries the central ideas of the
Wise Use of Mires and Peatlands, long
before these were formulated by Hans
Joosten and Donal Clarke in 2002.
Not without reason, the initial meeting
for the Wise Use concept among
16 PEATLANDS International 1/2006
Rewetted peat extraction area. Photo: Eckhard Schmatzler
IMCG and IPS members was arranged
in Lower Saxony’s Surwold in 1997.
Especially, the guidance principles
for Wise Use are inherent in the Mire
Conservation Programme of Lower
Saxony, for example:
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the preparation and guidance work
of the working group on mire
utilization and land management,
and the guidance by the German
Peat Society (principle of public
participation),
the research projects surveying the
raised bogs (principle of careful
decision-making),
the benefi ts for the society (principle
of motivation),
the publicly accessible basics
(principle of public access to
information),
the protection of habitats (principle
of species integrity) and
the compensations
(principle of
compensation).
Also in its dimension,
the Lower
Saxonian Mire
Conservation
Programme is
one of the largest
projects of its
kind. Particularly,
the areas of restored
peatlands
are, with their
12,000 ha, so far unique even on a
worldwide scale.
Future distribution of Mires
in Lower Saxony
It is estimated that, with the Mire Conservation
Programme, about 112,000
of the former 250,000 ha raised bog
area of Lower Saxony can be restored
to growing raised bogs. This area consists
of:
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current natural and near-natural
raised bogs: 50,000 ha
today’s restored areas: 12,000 ha
industrially utilized areas, to be
restored after peat extraction:
30,000 ha
future peat production areas, to be
restored afterwards: 20,000 ha
= total future raised bog area in
Lower Saxony: 112,000 ha
Restored and near-natural bogs in Lower Saxony.