The peatland used for agriculture is normally lost in the long term and leads to an ultimate destruction of the peat layer. However, a number of peat companies today are contributing to ensuring that Lower Saxony plays a leading role in the field of recultivation of bogs as compared to international standards.

For many years, the German peat industry has attached great importance to extracting peat in a way that protects resources and the environment. It has also been ensuring that the bogs are then subsequently recultivated.

Recultivation is therefore not just started after the peat has been obtained. The process begins at the same time as the peat is being extracted. In the first instance, this means the re-wetting of the sites, which takes place solely using rainwater. The remaining peat layer swells and provides a suitable habitat for peat bog plants, peat bogs, cotton grass and other plants typical to bogs within just a few years. Step by step, new peat bogs develop in this way.

More than 13,000 hectares of former peat extraction sites are not currently in the recultivation stage. By 2040, this will be approx. 27,000 hectares. The peat industry is making a decisive contribution to redeveloping typical bog landscapes. These landscapes are under a permanent nature protection order.