Malchin (dpa/mv) – According to Agriculture and Environment Minister Till Backhaus (SPD), the rewetting of once drained moors is a decisive contribution to climate protection. “As a federal state rich in moors, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania has a special responsibility for ambitious moor protection,” emphasized Backhaus on Wednesday in Malchin (Mecklenburg Lake District). In the Biergraben lowland on the outskirts of the small town, the water level is to be gradually raised over an area of ??134 hectares, thereby reducing the release of the climate-damaging gas CO2. According to Backhaus, the moor protection project initiated by the city itself is being funded by the state with 1.77 million euros from the EU fund for agriculture.
According to the State Office for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Geology, peat soils make up around 300,000 hectares in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, around 13 percent of the state area. However, they were drained for centuries to make them usable for agriculture. Because drained moors emit CO2, their rewetting is considered an important climate protection measure. Farmers are often skeptical about the efforts because wet soil can only be used to a limited extent.
