PaluWise

Paludiculture Demonstrations providing multi-actor approaches and recommendations towards large-scale deployment in the EU

PaluWise is an EU-funded research and demonstration project dedicated to the sustainable and productive use of rewetted peat soils in Europe. With funding of around EUR 10 million from the EU Horizon Europe programme and a duration of four and a half years, the project aims to transform degraded organic soils into resilient landscapes from the perspective of climate, nature, and value creation. PaluWise is coordinated by the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) and implemented by a consortium of 18 partners from eight European countries spanning the entire value chain of paludiculture.

The focus of PaluWise is on testing and scaling of best practices for the agricultural use of wet and rewetted peatlands while preserving the peat layer – paludiculture. At four large-scale demonstration sites in Finland, Poland, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, promising wetland crops such as downy birch, common reed, sedges, cattail, and reed canary grass are cultivated at field scale and examined with regard to their ecological, economic, and social potential. The aim is to establish functioning value chains and develop transferable models for large-scale implementation across Europe. Building on the results of the demonstration sites, PaluWise develops practical recommendations and strategies for the widespread establishment of wet agriculture on peat soils within the European Union.

Thus, PaluWise directly contributes to the implementation of the EU Nature Restoration Law, which explicitly lists paludiculture as a measure for restoring drained peatlands. Through close collaboration with landowners, agricultural enterprises, companies, policymakers, and local communities, the project ensures that paludiculture not only contributes effectively to climate mitigation, biodiversity enhancement, and water regulation, but also creates new income opportunities in rural areas.