Paludiculture as a critical sustainability innovation mission

Paludiculture is the productive use of wet and rewetted peatlands. A major motivation is climate change, because drained peatlands contribute significant amounts of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. The study presents an analysis of paludiculture as a critical sustainability innovation mission in the making. It is based on qualitative interviews conducted in 2018 in the north-east of Germany as well as on subsequent regional and European level stakeholder workshops focused on wet agriculture options for rewetted mires and other types of wetlands. A social grid approach of cognitive frames, institutions and social networks and their interplay is used to analyse paludiculture options for currently drained mires. The analysis suggests a pathway of paludiculture as land use at the margins of intensive, dryland agriculture. It also points to strategies for paludiculture to move from the margin to a transformation pathway, based on the use of framing, institutional conversion and productive niche work. The study proposes a 3Ms-schema of mission, modes and making innovation as a device to create space for a wide and inclusive discussion of paludiculture.