• July 28, 2025

Paludiculture in Europe: Development & Implementation

With growing urgency to address greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity loss, and furtherland degradation caused by drained peatlands, paludiculture is gaining attention across Europe as a land use option for agriculturally used, degraded peat soils. However, fragmented political frameworks, the lack of incentives, technical barriers, and the absence of established value chains continue to hinder its large-scale implementation.

This study presents an overview of 47 EU-(co)-funded and other significant projects in European countries with substantial peatland areas. It serves both as a practical reference and a policy-focused analysis, offering insights into enabling conditions and persistent obstacles and implementation challenges across national contexts.

Aimed at policymakers, project developers, researchers, and advocacy groups, the reportsupports ongoing efforts to advance paludiculture by identifying key developments, policy gaps, and lessons learned. It also seeks to inform upcoming strategic processes, especially the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform in 2027.

The report is structured by country. Each section outlines relevant political and legal frameworks for paludiculture, followed by an overview of ongoing or completed projects, prioritising EU-(co)-funded initiatives. 

The analysis shows a clear rise in paludiculture activities since 2010, with a shift from initial feasibility studies towards practical implementations and market integration. Despite this momentum, major gaps remain: only a minority of countries explicitly reference paludiculturein their CAP strategic plans or national frameworks, making real-world implementation for farmers difficult. The report highlights the need for clearer political frameworks and long-term planning security to scale up paludiculture as a viable and sustainable land use strategy across Europe.

You can access the full report below: