Preserving peat

Soil Diary/Forum: Interview with Maarten Schrama

Listen to or watch the interview below with Maarten Schrama, one of the instigators of the Polderlab. While listening, you can look at this photo where Maarten is walking next to a the ‘Boekhorstvaart’, lying high in the landscape relative to the surrounding grassy polders. The interview is approximately 11 minutes long.

© Maarten walking on the border of the Polderlab, by Ingrid Lubbers, WUR.

Read through the following questions and keep three of them in mind while listening to the interview:

1) Maarten describes several consequences of peatland degradation. Which consequence struck you as most important, and why?

2) Peat meadow landscapes are both agricultural landscapes and habitats for many species. What tensions can arise when we try to preserve both?

3) Based on the interview, what would need to change to make the Dutch peat meadow landscape more sustainable? What might we gain – and what might we have to give up?

4) If lowering water levels contributed to many of the problems described by Maarten, would raising them again solve these problems? Why might the answer not be straightforward?

5) What role do you think science can play in deciding the future of the Dutch peat meadow landscape – and what questions cannot be answered by science alone?

Share one aspect that caught your interest in the Forum or record it in your Soil Diary.