Combating heat and drought with marshlands and forests
How can Germany deal with global warming more effectively? Environment Minister Carsten Schneider says that nature is our “most important ally”.
Berlin (dpa) – Federal Minister for the Environment Carsten Schneider promotes climate change adaptation with funding and new initiatives. His ministry reported that, among other things, he plans to increase funding for the “climate-adapted forest management” project by 10 million per year to 145 million annually.
The goal is to establish species-rich mixed deciduous forests that can handle rising temperature better than the spruce forests that are predominant in many parts of Germany. Schneider is visiting a number of climate change adaptation projects in Berlin and Brandenburg today. “Nature is our most important ally against heat and drought, as well as torrential rainfall and flooding,” the minister explained. He continued by saying that roadside trees and unsealed surfaces in cities could cause temperatures to decrease by several degrees in summer. “In the country, forests and marshlands act as natural air-conditioning systems, as well as storing water.”
Schneider plans to complement funding for rewetting marshlands with an initiative to promote wet agriculture. Reeds are among the crops that can be cultivated in this way. One of the ways in which marshlands can support the climate is their ability to store large amounts of carbon-dioxide.