Peat Restore: Restoring degraded peatlands in Słowiński National Park Poland

Summary

This project aimed to restore degraded peatlands in the Słowiński Park Narodowy (Słowiński National Park) situated on the Baltic Sea coast of Poland.

Wetlands around the Baltic hold immense water cleaning abilities by slowing down water flow and trapping nutrients and pollutants. Moreover, peatlands sequestrate carbon by peat formation and hence mitigate climate change. However, when peatlands are drained, they start degrading. This leads to leakage of carbon and nutrients rather than retention. By blocking drainage ditches and removing vegetation like scrubs and trees, the ground water is raised and the bog restored, which returns the potential for it to provide its natural ecosystem services.

This is exactly what was done in Słowiński National Park. Furthermore, areas destroyed by peat mining activities – post-mining artificial water bodies – were subject to experiments to initiate the development of peat-forming vegetation, such as floating islands to enhance regrowth.

Artificial ditches were blocked at 360 locations, and improved conservation of existing bog vegetation by removal of shrubs and trees in 67 ha. In total the project improved the conservation status of around 1,310 ha, of which nearly 500 ha were Natura 2000 areas.