Mysterious moorlands

Directors: Waltraud Paschinger

Soft ground, billowing mist, eerie noises. Moors can be spooky.

For our ancestors, they were useless wastelands. Almost 90% of these mystical landscapes were drained and turned into meadows, fields or woodland.

But today we know their importance. They are ancient, unique habitats for special plants and animals. Nothing rots in the acidic environment of the moors. They absorb water like a sponge. They can prevent flooding and moisten their surroundings. They are huge carbon reservoirs. One hectare with fifteen centimetres of peat stores as much carbon as a hectare of hundred-year-old forest. So peatlands can be climate savers, but if they are destroyed they can also be climate killers. And they are an inexhaustible gene pool whose research is still in its infancy.