Neighbours fight plans to expand peat extraction at Fuglsø Mose

Neighbours of Fuglsø Mose in northern Djursland are opposing plans by Pindstrup Mosebrug to expand peat extraction into the last untouched parts of the wetland, DR reports. They say the extraction would damage rare nature and release large amounts of carbon dioxide.

Bjarne Langdal Riis, who is leading the local opposition, said the wetland must be given room to recover.

“This is Denmark’s rainforest, and it is home to some very rare species,” he told DR. “When you dig it up, you lose nature and biodiversity, as well as a great deal of carbon that is converted into CO2 and released into the air.”

Pindstrup Mosebrug has extracted peat for sphagnum products in the area for several years. The company has now applied to the Central Denmark Region for permission to extract peat from two remaining sections covering five and 20 hectares.

Riis and other neighbours discovered the expansion plans by chance and are holding a public meeting at the local community hall this evening. Pindstrup Mosebrug has been invited to attend.

The company said it was aware of the climate challenges linked to sphagnum and that switching to alternatives was central to its work. Alternatives accounted for 34 percent of its products in 2024 and 2025, it said, with a target of 40 percent by 2028.

Jan Carlson, who has lived next to the wetland for 30 years, said the area had been completely drained. He owns land nearby and is converting 20 hectares into a wetland as part of the Green Tripartite initiative.

He said it was frustrating that Pindstrup was draining the wetland of water that could keep carbon stored in the soil. Carlson said he had complained about the company’s activities at Fuglsø Mose three or four times.

“It is completely unique Danish nature,” Carlson said. “But because the peat in the wetland is considered a raw material, they are allowed to release CO2.”

Riis called the situation “directly stupid”, saying the Green Tripartite initiative was spending billions of kroner to seal peat and prevent it from releasing CO2 while peat extraction did the opposite.

Poul Erik Lærke, a senior researcher at Aarhus University’s Department of Agroecology, compared traditional sphagnum and peat extraction to oil production. The carbon is bound in the ground and is released when the peat is dug up, he said.

It could take hundreds of years to rebuild a thick layer of peat, Lærke said. Under favourable conditions, peat may grow by about one millimetre a year and requires the right vegetation.

Denmark’s latest official climate accounts recorded 40,900 tonnes of CO2 from peat extraction in 2024. That corresponds to the annual climate emissions of about 4,000 people. The figure includes extraction by Pindstrup in northern Jutland, particularly at Store Vildmose and, to a lesser extent, Lille Vildmose, as well as extraction elsewhere.

Pindstrup said it restores areas to nature as extraction is completed. Riis, however, said sphagnum should no longer be used and that alternatives could be found for rhododendron beds and horticulture.

The Central Denmark regional council is expected to put a proposed new raw materials plan out for consultation later in September. The plan includes Pindstrup’s two proposed extraction areas, and politicians are expected to adopt it in about a year. Pindstrup would then need to apply to the region for an extraction permit, while Norddjurs Municipality would need to grant an exemption under Section 3 of the Nature Protection Act.