DESIRE

Summary

The funded partners were part of the larger DESIRE project that focused on rewetting and land use change in drained peatlands in the Neman river basin, which is the fourth biggest catchment in the Baltic Sea region. As such, it transports a large amount of nutrients and pollutants to the Baltic Sea, and the nutrient loads cause eutrophication. Peatlands and wetlands are natural pollutant traps, cleaning water as it passes through them. Also, healthy wetlands store carbon, mitigating climate change.

The aim was to restore pilot sites at Liepakojai and Žuvintai (Lithuania) as wetland buffer zones and at the same time initiating active usage of such sites, e.g. by piloting paludiculture activities, removing additional nutrients from the sites and creating additional benefits like increased biodiversity and climate change mitigation. Also, policy instruments like river basin management plans and agri-environmental schemes were analysed and developed within the project to provide instruments and incentives for stakeholders to implement measures following the project’s pilot examples. The rewetting of the Skieblewo bog in Poland was prepared within this project.