Course 2 | Paludiculture
Introduction to paludiculture
Paludiculture is wet agriculture and forestry on peatlands. Paludiculture combines, in principle, the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from drained peatlands through rewetting with continued land use and biomass production under wet conditions. “Paludi” comes from the Latin “palus” meaning “swamp, morass” and “paludiculture” as a concept, was developed at Greifswald University, Germany. Paludiculture is a sustainable alternative to drainage-based agriculture, intended to maintain carbon storage in peatlands. This differentiates paludiculture from agriculture like rice paddies, which involve draining, and therefore degrading wetlands.
Vast areas of agricultural peatlands in North West Europe are used for intensive meat and dairy production. This business model only works when the (peat)soils are continuously drained. In order to cease the net emission of GHG you have to stop the drainage process. This means that a farmer /landowner has to change his business model and instead of a mass production of meat and dairy start to cultivate a crop species that thrives well under wet conditions. These wetland crops are referred to as “paludicrops”.