The marketplace Peatland allows farmers and landowners to easily sell or exchange parcels of unsuitable farmland with the aim of restoring natural processes and habitats.

Naturjord

Across the globe people increasingly buy land not to cultivate it, but to restore and preserve its nature. Some are philanthropists, others are environmental foundations, still others are local citizen groups. Common for them is the realization that nature is in crisis and that it is worth employing capital to save it.

At the same time, farmers are interested in selling off the parcels of land that are unsuitable for agriculture, e.g. peatlands, sandy soils, or slopes. Coindidentaly, areas with low cultivation value typically have high natural potential. Here, plants and animals will quickly appear completely without human intervention.

When exchanging land on Peatland the parties enter into a legal agreement that ensures a significant and lasting improvement of the nature of the land in question.

How does it work?
Farmers and landowners can put parcels of land up for sale or exchange in the marketplace, while potential buyers can search for land in an interactive map developed in QGIS. Through this interface, potential buyers can evaluate specific acreages’ suitability for nature restoration, e.g. in terms of possible habitat restorations or CO2 reductions.

In the interactive map each acreage has a colour that represents its level of suitability for nature restoration. The colour scale is based on a weighted index consisting of the following factors:

  1. Peatlands (natural wetlands that are critical for storing carbon, preserving biodiversity, minimising flood risk, and ensuring safe drinking water)
  2. Bioscore (the area’s suitability as a habitat for endangered species)
  3. Hydrology (surface water, nitrate vulnerable zones, drinking water zones, distance to streams, etc.)
  4. Soil (e.g. the area’s suitability for cultivation)
  5. Terrain (e.g. the area’s suitability for cultivation)

This data is then coupled with economic GIS data (ownership, land value, etc.). The end result is an interactive map that displays exactly which fields are the most suitable for nature restoration, the public value of the land, and a gateway to contact the owner.

Who can use the marketplace?

  • Landowners (typically farmers) use Peatland to find buyers of inefficient farmland. Such areas are typically outcrops near streams and forests with rich wildlife or peats, sandy soils, or slopes that provide low yields but often are ideal for nature.
  • Non-profit foundations, companies, and private nature lovers use Peatland to buy land for nature restoration and nature protection.
  • Private investors, companies and private equity funds use Peatland to carry out sustainable investments in agriculture and forestry. When investing through Peatland, you legally undertake to lease the areas for either nature restoration or a transition to sustainable forestry or regenerative agriculture such as organic or extensive farming, typically grazing or mowing.
  • Tenants may be organic farmers, sustainable foresters, hunters, self-sufficients, or associations that rent and use the natural area in a sustainable way in compliance with the signed sales contract/tenancy agreement.
  • Finally, the public will (by Danish law) be able to access all nature areas