New tools help assess peatland restoration potential

New tools are designed to help private individuals, farmers and policymakers assess peatlands and identify suitable restoration measures, ORF reports. Austria must submit national peatland restoration plans by September under the European Union’s Nature Restoration Regulation.

The regulation, adopted in 2024, requires EU member states to restore damaged natural areas. Peatlands are a key part of that effort. According to the Federal Environment Agency’s peatland inventory, they cover 44,000 hectares in Austria, with more than 90 percent damaged by drainage.

Biologist Hermann Sonntag, a former managing director of the Karwendel Nature Park in Tyrol, has worked for years on peatland restoration. He said peatlands offered a positive example of how restoration could work. Interest in the issue had changed significantly since the climate debate began, he told the Austrian Press Agency.

Sonntag founded the company sonntagplus after training as a climate educator and certified nature guide. Together with FabLab Tirol, he developed a digital model called PEAT 3. A model company manufactures it, and it has so far been sold more than 15 times in German-speaking countries.

The model consists of two parts. One shows how peatlands grow, including their need for water and an impermeable base. The other depicts a degraded peatland where water drains away immediately and demonstrates ways to retain water in the peatland.

Sonntag has travelled as far as Hamburg with the 12-kilogram transport case and an accompanying presentation. A new version, PEAT 4, is being developed and is intended to function independently at travelling exhibitions. Sonntag also sees potential for creating more specific models using hydrological data and landscape features.

Restoration agreements have already been concluded with many farmers in classic raised peatlands in Tyrol. Sonntag expects restoration to be more difficult on organic soils used for agriculture.

A related initiative is being developed at the Raumberg-Gumpenstein Higher Federal Teaching and Research Institute in Styria. Andreas Bohner, head of its environmental ecology department, has written a brochure titled “Assessing the restoration potential of wetland habitats using indicator plants.” It contains numerous photographs and is due to be distributed and published online in September.

Bohner said decisions on rewetting should be based on scientific criteria, although the issue was politically sensitive. Many peatlands were no longer recognisable as such because they had been converted into arable or grassland fields, while the peat soil remained underneath. Simple assessment methods were therefore needed, he said.

The aim is to enable non-specialists to make a rough assessment of how disturbed a peatland is and whether restoration could be worthwhile. This could also help farmers determine whether a relatively undisturbed peatland might be made available for conservation.