04.03.2026
Within the international project “Peat4People”, the Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF) cooperates with the Greifswald Mire Centre to strengthen the protection and sustainable use of peatlands in Uganda and Rwanda.
The project is funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Michael Succow Foundation. A key component of the project is the development of low-cost systems for measuring greenhouse gases (GHG) in peatlands, combined with targeted knowledge transfer. ZALF contributes primarily through its technical expertise:
In the new EcoTecAnalytics Lab of the working group Ecophysiology and Matter Cycling (ECO), the focus lies on the development, construction, optimization and practical implementation of low-cost GHG measurement systems (SensorWeb pillar of AgroFlux Sensor Platform). Building on previous work of the ZALF ECO group, NDVI sensors and so-called CHASY LOCO (Chamber System Low-Cost) systems are constructed – robust, cost-efficient chamber systems for measuring greenhouse gas fluxes. ZALF mainly supports the technical development, construction and maintenance of the systems, as well as hands-on training for their application in the field. The aim is to enable partner institutions in Uganda and Rwanda to independently conduct reliable long-term GHG measurements.
Knowledge transfer is facilitated by Hauke Schmülling, a doctoral researcher at the University of Greifswald and since 2024 a visiting scientist and co-supervising researcher at ZALF. In January and February 2026, two international visiting scientists – Therese Ave Maria from Rwanda and Asadhu Ssebyoto from Uganda – received intensive training in the EcoTecAnalytics Lab. The focus was on practical skills, ranging from assembling CHASY LOCO systems and troubleshooting to the proper implementation of field measurement campaigns. In March 2026, the systems co-developed at ZALF are scheduled to be deployed for the first time in peatlands in Uganda and Rwanda under summer conditions and tested jointly in the field.
This cooperation exemplifies how ZALF contributes its technical innovation capacity and research infrastructure to support international partners in establishing sustainable monitoring structures – an important contribution to evidence-based peatland conservation and global climate protection
