• October 29, 2025

Workshop Report: The future is wet - cultivating change through wet farming and paludiculture (October 14th, Leuven)

On October 14th, the LIFE Multi Peat team, in collaboration with colleagues from the Horizon-funded PaluWise project, hosted a workshop on paludiculture in Leuven, Belgium. The event brought together practitioners, researchers, and policymakers to explore practical approaches to paludiculture practices across Europe.

The workshop was opened by Jutta Paulus, Member of the European Parliament (Greens/EFA) and dedicated peatland advocate, who highlighted the significant achievement of adopting the EU Nature Restoration Law during the previous legislative period. The Law establishes, for the first time, legally binding targets for peatland restoration across Europe. Despite some targets having been weakened during trialogue negotiations, it remains an achievement that during the current legislative period appears inconceivable. 

 

The morning sessions showcased diverse approaches to peatland restoration and paludiculture across EU member states. Ernesto Aquirre (Fundación Global Nature) presented Spanish initiatives, including LIFE wetlands4climate and LIFE aquatic warbler, which focus on restoring wetlands as crucial habitats and carbon sinks. From Germany, Jan Peters (Michael Succow Foundation) highlighted collaborative projects between farmers, universities, and private companies working to establish paludiculture value chains. Notable examples include the Tomooorow Initiative and the Allianz der Pioniere. These partnerships between paper manufacturers, farmers, and major retailers have successfully brought paludiculture biomass packaging to market and are planning for scaling up in the coming years.

 

Gert-Jan van Duinen (Stichting Bargerveen) outlined the urgent situation in the Netherlands, where continuous land subsidence—often far below sea level—combined with severe nitrogen pollution, is forcing agricultural transformation. Dutch paludiculture pilots are demonstrating win-win outcomes for both biodiversity and climate protection. For the UK, Mike Longden (Liverpool John Moores University) impressively showed how the spectrum of "wetter farming" trials continues to expand: ranging from cultivating more conventional crops like cabbage, lettuce, blueberries, and rhubarb under wetter conditions, to carbon farming projects focused on sphagnum moss cultivation for carbon credit generation.

The morning session was followed by a field visit to Belgium's first paludiculture site, providing participants with hands-on insights into implementing such innovative farming practices. The pilot site, located at Strackxhoeve in Laakdal, an hour outside of Leuven, comprises a 0.5-hectare field of willow cultivation. Two years after planting, the willows have experienced various teething problems, but it is now becoming visible which varieties and cutting types—minimum 50cm—are performing best. The most successful specimens have reached heights of over 3 meters and will soon be ready for harvest. The next challenge will be exploring which harvesting techniques are most practical, affordable, and least disruptive to the fragile peat soil. Similarly, new value chains for the willow biomass still need to be developed. Considerable interest has been shown by various actors, including the local zoo for animal feed, though conditions of sale and production remain to be negotiated.