Last week, our team boarded a train to s’-Hertogenbosch… Harsh name for a lovely town, which also hosted the biggest European peatlands conference: the Power to the Peatlands! As Wetlands International fellows, we share a common passion for precious peatland ecosystems, and we were not only super excited to attend this event but also involved in its organisation as official partners. We even had a stand and our own side event linking peatlands and business.  

As many small Dutch towns, Den Bosch appeared picturesque and surrounded by freshwater. Against this backdrop, the Power to the Peatlands conference provided a fitting setting to explore how peatland restoration can move from ambition to implementation, bringing together researchers, practitioners, civil society, policymakers and businesses from across Europe to share experiences, lessons learned and practical solutions for scaling action.  

Peatlands for  business 

As a conference partner, we contributed to the programme through policy and technical sessions, managed a stand showcasing Wetlands International projects – notably ALFAwetlands and WET HORIZONS – and supported the moderation of the main plenary sessions. We certainly kept busy! 

A particular highlight was co-organising the side event “Peatlands for business: turning restoration into real returns” with key partners, including the Michael Succow Foundation, Eurosite, Natuurpunt and Natuurmonumenten.  

This event featured a participative approach. Seated in small groups around cocktail tables, farmers, landowners, businesses, investors and policymakers were mingled to exchange perspectives, build new connections and explore the business models, partnerships and financing solutions needed to scale peatland restoration across Europe.  

This experience proves that efforts are paying off as discussions among participants continued in the room even after the session ended. We hope this will be the beginning of an ongoing dialogue, helping to foster new partnerships, strengthen collaboration, and accelerate peatland restoration action across Europe. 

Networking in the centre 

With more than 600 peatlands lovers gathered in a single room for two full days, networking opportunities were promising, and the thematic sessions going on from morning till afternoon a great spot for it. 

We were delighted to contribute to two policy-focused sessions exploring the implementation of key EU frameworks for peatlands: the Common Agricultural Policy and the Nature Restoration Regulation. Opportunities and challenges of aligning these frameworks to support peatland restoration and rewetting across Europe were central in the discussions. A key focus of our policy and advocacy work in Brussels is indeed to translate policy ambition into practical action on the ground. 

Other sessions showcased implementation in practice. We moderated the one on “New friends for peatlands: industrial utilisation of paludiculture biomass”, focused on the PaluWise project, which we are part of. Put simply, PaluWise aims to showcase the potential of cultivating wet soils like peatlands, a technique called paludiculture. In this session, experts from different countries showcased concrete paludiculture applications and value chains, while exploring the challenges and opportunities they encounter while implementing them. This really triggered our curiosity. Did you know that cattail reeds are used in the Netherlands to make construction and isolation materials?  

As key takeaways, we highlighted the importance of continuing to work on ecosystem services, to increase revenues of paludiculture and showcase its sustainability benefits. By making more area available for paludiculture, we can support wider uptake and upscaling. 

Looking ahead

Overall, our team came back inspired and re-fueled from the Power to the Peatlands experience. This has proven once again that peatlands are really our climate super-heroes, and we need their superpowers to keep shining and guiding us to a sustainable future. 

We are grateful for the organising team who made it happen: Natuurmonumenten, Natuurpunt, and Radboud Universiteit. Next Power to the Peatlands will happen in 2029 and we’re already looking forward to it!