Narratives and Discursive Agency on the Bumpy Road Towards Rewetting Peatlands

Peatland rewetting in Germany has gained significant attention as a nature-based solution to contribute to climate change mitigation . It was declared a top priority in the German Peatland Restoration Strategy in 2022. However, this goal is causing heated debates and controversy in times of polarization of and setbacks in German climate policies. The resistance of farmers, practical challenges of peatland rewetting, institutional misfits and uncertain risks, e.g. future water availabilities, make the German federal rewetting strategy currently a “strategy in the making”, creating a window of opportunity for actors to shape its future course of institutionalization. Peatland rewetting in Germany therefore becomes a fruitful area to study social-ecological transformation conflicts. This paper investigates the actors involved in the rewetting of peatlands in Germany, their narratives, roles and positions, and the strategic issues that constitute the rewetting discourse in Germany since the launch of the peatland restoration strategy. Drawing on various data sources we apply the Discursive Agency Approach by Leipold & Winkel (2016 ), to explore the strategic practices of actors and that manifest themselves in the different discourses on peatland rewetting. In particular, we are interested in examining how discursive agency mobilizes the emergence of capable agents that negotiate power relations, frame issues, and legitimize specific courses of action, and lastly how it might impact the network of institutions involved in governing the implementation in Lower Saxony.