Managing Soil Carbon in Europe: Paludicultures as a New Perspective for Peatlands - Soil Carbon: Science, Management and Policy for Multiple Benefits - page 299

Paludicultures use that part of net primary
production that is dispensable for peat for-
mation. In the temperate, subtropical and
tropical zones, i.e. those zones of the world
where plant productivity is high, peat is
generally formed by roots and rhizomes,
and peatlands by nature hold vegetation of
which aboveground parts can be harvested
without substantially harming peat forma-
tion (Wichtmann and Joosten, 2007).
Paludiculture comprises any biomass
use from wet and rewetted peatlands, from
harvesting spontaneous vegetation on nat-
ural sites to artificially established crops on
rewetted sites. Besides traditional yields of
food, feed, fibre and fuel, the biomass can
be used as a raw material for industrial bio-
chemistry, for producing high-quality liquid
or gaseous biofuels, and for further purposes
like extracting and synthesizing pharma-
ceuticals and cosmetics.

(Europe) (Joosten and Clarke, 2002). Other
traditional, low-intensity uses include hunt-
ing and fishing.
More intensive land-use options in-
clude the site-adapted cultivation of crops
and livestock grazing. Some of them revital-
ize traditional forms of land use through
new utilization schemes. Others, such as
the cultivation of plants for biofuels, pro-
vide newly developed products for new
market demands ( Table 25.1) . Some out-
standing examples are introduced in the
following sections. All concepts have in
common that the peatland mean water level
is near the soil surface.

Low-intensity grazing
with water buffalos

Peatlands have over centuries served as
wild pasture for (semi-)domestic animals,
but this kind of low-impact use has de-
creased drastically in recent decades (Tan-
neberger and Wichtmann, 2011). Cattle
grazing for dairy production generally
require peatland drainage. However, on
drained sites, the quantity and quality of
the available fodder cannot keep up
with the increasing quality needs of high-
production dairy cows. As a consequence,
the drained peatland grasslands are often
abandoned or (in the European Union, EU)
only managed symbolically for securing
EU subsidies.
Grazing with water buffalos, Bubalus
bubalis , after rewetting may provide an al-
ternative. Water buffalos forage on biomass
with low energy content and are well
adapted to permanent wet conditions. They
suffer much less from parasites and hoof
diseases, and can move much better on wet
soils than normal cattle (Krawczynski et al .,
2008). Wet grassland management with buf-
falos seems to have important benefits for
biodiversity, as diverse reed beds have a
variety of microhabitats. As buffalos hardly
need medication, in contrast to conven-
tional dairy cattle, their dung is not contam-
inated by anthelmintics and supports rich
microflora and fauna, which forms the basis

Land-use Options for Rewetted
Peatlands in Temperate Europe

Since early times, the utilization of biomass
is part of the ambiguous relationship of
humans and wet peatlands (Moore, 1987;
Joosten, 2009). Already in 17th century in
England, the value of fen peatlands in pro-
viding fodder for horses, cattle and sheep,
as a store of 'osier, reed and sedge' and as
'nurseries and seminaries' of fish and fowl
was recognized (Wheeler, 1896).
Land-use options of wet peatlands may
entail the collection of plants and hunting
of animals for direct consumption without
much management intervention. In the bor-
eal zone of Eurasia, a wide variety of wild
edible berries ( Vaccinium , Empetrum , Ru-
bus , Ribes ) and mushrooms are gathered for
food and vitamins (Joosten and Clarke,
2002), and these services have been major
justifications in Russia and Belarus to pro-
tect and restore mires. In other parts of the
world, a variety of plants for human nutri-
tion or medical use are collected from wet
peatlands, such as wild rice, Zizania aquat-
ica (North America), or Menyanthes trifolia-
ta , Acorus calamus and Hierochloe odorata