Restore wetlands change method – stop sticking

In several large live television programs such as Melodifestivalen and Vasaloppet, the activists have managed to get onto stages and dance floors to display placards with the words “Restore wetlands”.

Greatest attention and the action received criticism during the morning rush hour on August 29, 2022. Then traffic on the E4 near the Karolinska University Hospital in Solna was blocked by 13 activists who glued themselves to the roadway.

Many were upset that an ambulance on call got stuck in the mile-long queues. The activists were charged with sabotage and convicted in the district court, but were later acquitted in the court of appeal.

After two years, the activists are now changing their methods.

– We have achieved everything we can and shown that peaceful resistance works. We have created opinion and influenced politics, says Helen Wahlgren, press spokesperson for “Restore Wetlands”.

Among other things, climate minister Romina Pourmokhtari (L) has made the wetlands a priority issue in the government’s climate and environmental work.

You have received a lot of criticism for your storming, does that affect your new direction?

– The fact that people were upset has not affected us. What we have done has the potential to change society and reduce the worst effects of climate change, says Helen Wahlgren.

Now the climate group is targeting the peat industry instead. They want to see a ban on peat mining in Sweden.

In Sweden, there are large areas of peatland, 15 percent of the country’s surface is covered by peat. To extract peat, any forest is felled and the land is drained using ditches. The peat is then used in cultivation soil and as energy in, among other things, heating plants. There are large amounts of carbon stored in the peat and when the drained peat is used for peat extraction, agriculture and forestry, the land releases carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide.

Armed with shovels, the activists intend to dig back the ditches at the peat mines.

– We are there to reduce emissions. It is a beautiful action in a terrible place, says Helena Wahlgren.

But it is a small part of the peat that is burned up. Figures from 2022 show that ten times more of the Swedish peat was used for cultivation. Peat makes up approximately 80 percent of the growing substrates in Europe.

– If we didn’t use peat, it would have major consequences for global food production. Peat is the substrate used in almost all greenhouses, says Sabine Jordan at Sweden’s Agricultural University, who has researched peat for 25 years.

She is also a deputy on the board of the industry organization Swedish Peat.

There are other methods to make the soil fertile, such as rock wool and coconut fiber. Research is also ongoing with reeds, white mosses, reeds and wood. In home gardens, leaves and compost can be used.

– It is not possible to vacuum the forest for leaves, they are needed like carbon in the forest floor, so it is not so easy to find a qualitative and quantitative substitute for peat, says Sabine Jordan.

– You mustn’t forget the whole here either. Compared to forestry and agriculture, the peat industry emits very little greenhouse gases, she says.

Read more:

Climate activists are acquitted of sabotage – they are torn up

Scientists: Misleading conclusion about restoring wetlands