Moorland fire shows nature-based climate action also needed for adaptation – NGO

The major wildfire in the Hohe Venn moorland on the Belgian-German border is a reminder that environmental protection is an asset in climate adaptation and a prerequisite for shielding citizens from extreme weather events and disasters, NGO Nabu has said. 

“The fire in the Hohe Venn region forcefully shows us how vulnerable landscapes are during times of heat and drought,” said Nabu head Jörg-Andreas Krüger. Intact and wet moorlands are important natural water reservoirs that can help make the landscape more resilient against fire. “Climate adaptation is not only a question of environmental protection, but also of our health and security,” he argued. 

The fire in the rugged and rural region had led to evacuations in Belgium and western Germany over the weekend and was still not fully under control by Thursday (20 August), newspaper Rheinische Post reported. Underground pockets of embers burning through the moorland were expected to require prolonged firefighting operations, possibly for several weeks.

Rewetting moorlands serves as an insurance policy against droughts, water scarcity and the increasing risk of wildfires, Nabu said, calling for a “fundamental” change in the way water is consumed in Germany. Farmers that work on retaining water on their land need financial and legal support in doing so, the NGO said, adding that it supports a proposal by environment minister Carsten Schneider to make climate adaptation a shared responsibility of federal, state and local governments in the constitution. “If we want to make our country more resilient against heat, droughts, floods and fires, the federal government, the states and the municipalities all have to take on responsibility together and invest in our natural infrastructure,” Krüger added. 

The NGO repeated its appeal for moorland rewetting in a statement on the environment ministry’s planned reform of its Natural Climate Protection programme. The ministry aims to remove 40 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO₂e) annually by 2045 through actions such as the restoration of degraded forests and peatlands, and moorland protection and rewetting. 

“Forests, moorlands and soils are under pressure for many different reasons and increasingly lose their potential for contributing to climate protection,” said Nabu policy expert Kim Detloff. As former CO₂ sinks turn into greenhouse gas sources, the programme comes at the right time for recognising these mechanisms and strengthening natural ecosystems to become more resilient, he said. 

The proposed classification of moorland protection and rewetting as a measure of “overriding public interest” would be an important signal that natural climate protection needs reliable and sustained funding to take full effect, Detloff added. The same determination would now be needed for forest protection, which, according to the Nabu expert, had been deprioritised in the ministry’s proposal. Detloff also said that the draft lacked clear metrics and milestones for individual areas: “Without concrete targets and effective measures, it will be difficult to assess the programme’s effectiveness.”