To defend against Russian tanks, Finland and Poland consider restoring wetlands

Since Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine in 2022, European countries that share borders with Russia have ramped up security on their eastern borders.

Finland recently completed the first stretch of a wall along its 1,340 kilometre frontier with Russia, and has been closely monitoring an increase in Russian troop movements on the other side. 

This summer, Poland added protective minefields to a 20 kilometre stretch bordering both Russia and Belarus, as part of its sprawling “East Shield” development programme for defence infrastructure.

Now, the NATO-members are looking to the natural world to further fortify their defences – by revitalising peat bogs. 

Wetlands that accumulate peat are made up of spongy, waterlogged ground that is impenetrable for tanks. They are typically found in cooler northern climates and are dotted throughout the northern and eastern European nations that share land borders with Russia and Belarus. 

‘Nature is an ally’

There are increasing calls in Europe to accelerate peatland restoration plans on both ecological and defence grounds.

Finland’s defence and environment ministries will in autumn begin talks on launching a peatland repair pilot project, a member of the working group said in an article published by Politico this week.

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In Poland, the defence ministry is keen to restore wetlands along the eastern border and talks are underway between scientists and the defence and environment ministries.

“Nature is an ally, and we want to use it,” Cezary Tomczyk, a state secretary at Poland’s defence ministry, told Politico.

German peatland thinktank, The Greifswald Mire Centre, in June called for the EU to establish a fund worth up to €500 million to finance planning and rewetting 100,000 hectares of land.

“Naturally wet and equally rewetted peatlands are impassable for tanks, slowing down troop movements and forcing predictable corridors that are easier to defend,” the organisation said in a statement. 

“Peatlands offer additional protection for critical infrastructure by making troop movements near transport routes, energy facilities and strategic supply points more difficult.”

‘Healthy peatland’

There is a Ukrainian precedent for the faith in using wetlands as defence. 

In March 2022, Ukraine’s armed forces destroyed the Kozarovychi Dam, flooding 2,800 hectares of land and successfully slowing down Russian troops advancing towards Kyiv.

But the deliberate flooding also caused widespread damage including in residential areas. In environmental terms, it may have done more harm than good.

Pollutants including sewage and heavy metals were likely to have been released by the flood waters, along with invasive species from local fish farms.

“If you rewet rapidly then you just end up with a lake, basically, and not necessarily with all the biodiversity that you might envisage,” says Mark van der Wal, senior ecologist at the Dutch branch of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

“If you want to increase the positive ecological impact, it needs to be done carefully and it may take a while,” says Caspar Verwer, Senior Expert Nature Conservation at the IUCN. “It's not just a matter of opening the gate and the water flows in, and you have your healthy peatland.”

Carbon sinks

Peatlands are unique ecosystems that sequester large amounts of carbon dioxide – but their benefits have not always been celebrated.

In Finland “one third of the country is peatland, but we have drained half of this area”, says Kristiina Lang, a research professor and peat specialist at the Natural Resources Institute of Finland (Luke).

After World War II, vast swathes of wetland were given over to the profitable forestry industry, and smaller areas for agriculture in parts of the country that lacked farmland.

The situation is similar across Europe, where nearly half of all peatlands are degraded largely due to artificial drainage. 

While forests and farms have thrived in nutrient-rich peat soil, the loss of wetlands has taken an environmental toll. 

“Drained peatland makes up 10% of Finland’s agricultural land, but it produces more than half of the agricultural greenhouse gas emissions”, Lang says.

When wet, peatlands, which are made up largely of decomposed organic matter, can store huge amounts of carbon and act as a natural carbon sink. But when drained, microbial activity starts to decompose the organic matter and peat becomes a carbon emitter. 

In the EU, drained peatlands currently emit around 7% of total annual greenhouse gas emissions – something the bloc is keen to rectify. 

Under EU restoration laws, member countries must restore at least 30% of drained peatlands by 2030, and 50% by 2025.

According to the European Parliament, “restoring drained peatlands is one of the most cost-effective ways to reduce emissions in the agricultural sector”.

‘A hole in our defence’

In Finland there are some obvious sites for rewetting, such as areas drained for forestry that failed to grow trees. 

“It's very logical to wet these large areas again,” Lang says. “And if we need to rewet part of our peatlands anyway, then why not close to the eastern border?” 

In other areas, the conversion could be more complex. Many areas of drained peatland are now privately owned. Some may be in prime defence locations but are now thriving – and profitable – forests and farmland. 

In the Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia there are no current plans to rewet peatbogs as a defence measure, says Dr. Māris Andžāns, director of the Center for Geopolitical Studies Riga, Latvia.  

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For now, there are greater threats to focus on. During the war in Ukraine, Russia has carried out hybrid warfare activities via their shadow fleet in the Baltic Sea, and there is also the aerial threat of drone attacks.

“No Baltic state has long range air defence systems,” says Andžāns. “The sky is a big hole in our defence.”

Even though the Baltic countries have invested in improving defences such as anti-tank ditches, focusing too much on a ground invasion would be a mistake, Andžāns says: “The next war might be completely different and there is a real danger that by approaching defence in such a classical manner, we miss other more likely scenarios.”