National peatland strategies in Europe: current status, key themes, and challenges

Abstract

Peatlands are globally important ecosystems that reflect many of today’s environmental challenges, particularly climate change and biodiversity loss. In recent years, several European countries have adopted national peatland strategies as integrated strategies that provide cross-sectoral policy frameworks to promote the conservation, restoration, and sustainable use of peatlands. This paper reviews eight national peatland strategies that have been formally adopted in Europe, i.e., the peatland strategies of Austria, England, Germany, Finland, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. The strategies are analyzed based on six key themes: (1) the motivation for adopting national peatland strategies, (2) the generation of a sufficient database, (3) stakeholder participation and outreach, (4) institutional arrangements for cross-sectoral policy coordination and integration, (5) financial management strategies, and (6) mechanisms for monitoring and reporting. Our comparative study shows that there is a growing political commitment to sustainable peatland management in Europe. Although the national strategies show some differences in terms of the six key themes, they also show a high degree of similarity in terms of procedural aspects and the issues addressed. We conclude that the national strategies are currently performing quite well in terms of raising awareness and building capacity. However, the main challenge for the effective implementation of national peatland strategies is the issue of cross-sectoral policy integration.