Urban rewilding for sustainability and food security

Urban Farm DB summary

A conceptual paper extending the ecological-restoration paradigm of rewilding into urban and food contexts, arguing that multispecies-based 'urban rewilding' can simultaneously enhance climate resilience, biodiversity recovery, food-system robustness, water sensitivity and community participation. It also flags trade-offs such as green gentrification and land availability, opening new debate within productive green infrastructure.

Only numbers and their conditions are stored, as structured data — never the source's own sentences. Metric and condition names stay in English, as coded.

• 560,000 ha

  area gap(peatland rewetting)

  Policy

  region

  DE

  target year

  2029

  reference

  paris-agreement-rewetting-path

  note

  about

• 84.6–148 mt_co2

  co2 emission gap(peatland rewetting)

  Climate

  region

  DE

  target year

  2029

  reference

  paris-agreement-rewetting-path

• 13.8–16 billion_eur

  politically justified budget(peatland drainage phase out)

  Economics

  region

  DE

  study design

  pestle

  target

  1.5c-compatible

• 7 %

  share of total ghg emissions(drained peatland)

  Climate

  scope

  various-countries-worldwide

  driver

  drainage-for-agriculture-and-forestry

  note

  more-than

Direction of conclusions

Each author conclusion is recorded only as a coded direction per topic. Read the original for the conclusion itself.

• Policy and governanceSupports
• Carbon / GHGSupports

Carbon emissions of peatlands drained for agriculture and forestry contribute more than 7 % to total GHG emissions in various countries worldwide. Hence, reducing these emissions by ending peatland drainage is a significant contribution to a transition towards carbon neutrality and being in line with the Paris Agreement. To achieve this goal, swift action is needed. Using Germany as a case study, we scrutinize whether the German coal phase-out can serve as a ‘blueprint’ to end drainage on agriculturally used peatlands, using six categories (political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal). We also calculate a politically justified budget for a peatland drainage phase-out comparable to the coal phase-out in terms of the socially acceptable mitigation of CO 2 emissions. Our results suggest that the current pace of rewetting is too slow in comparison to a rewetting path following the Paris Agreement and would create an area gap of about 560,000 ha and a resulting CO 2 emission gap of 84.6–148 Mt CO 2 by 2029. We show that both, peatland drainage phase-out and coal phase-out, are socio-technical transitions which require governmental intervention and a guided-level perspective. For a governed peatland drainage phase-out in Germany which is 1.5°C compatible, we determine a politically justified total budget between 13.8 and 16 billion €. • The phase-out approach could be well suited to end peatland drainage as it has been for the coal phase-out. • The PESTLE approach underlines the far-reaching changes of peatland rewetting along six dimensions. • Phasing out drainage-based agriculture on peatlands is a socio-technical transition. • We determine a politically justified total budget of 14 and 16 billion € for the peatland drainage phase-out in Germany.