Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Poland and Finland have increasingly explored the restoration of wetlands and natural border terrain as a way to strengthen both defence and climate resilience. These two countries, which share borders with Russia and Russian ally Belarus, seek to implement EU Commissioner for the Environment Jessika Roswall's suggestion to treat nature as a defence asset. Focusing on rewilding techniques to boost defence infrastructure indicates intertwined national and climate security for these states on Europe’s eastern flank.
In both Poland and Finland, rewilding techniques for security center around wetlands and peatlands near their borders. Many of the border wetlands are peatlands or bogs, where waterlogged conditions allow partially decomposed plant matter to accumulate into carbon-rich soil known as peat. These peatlands act as effective carbon sinks, absorbing excess CO2, a key dimension for their role in Europe’s climate change policy. However, peatlands have been threatened by drainage that comes from agricultural demands for land. EU countries reported 124 million tons of greenhouse gas pollution from drained peatlands in 2022, close to the annual emissions of the Netherlands.
From a defence perspective, waterlogged peatlands can make movement difficult for troops, military trucks and tanks. Peatland geography has limited troop mobility throughout European history, with Finland’s treacherous swamps entrapping the Soviets in the 1940s, to the marshes north of Kyiv that halted military operations in both World Wars. While restoring border wetlands would not replace conventional defence, it could make some areas harder to cross and channel military movement into narrower, more defensible corridors.
Along peatland-rich Eastern European borderlands, restoration projects have been set in motion. Poland’s Eastern Shield fortification project, launched in 2024, aims to restore wetlands and forests for both climate and national security.
EU Commissioner for the Environment Jessika Roswall has promoted rewilding border areas as a way to deter potential invasions and strengthen natural defences, according to an article published by The Guardian on Monday (9 March). Roswall said that restoring forests, bushes, and wetlands near national borders can make it more difficult for people and military vehicles to cross. She argued that nature should increasingly be treated as a defence asset, linking environmental protection to broader security concerns such as food supply and water security. Roswall also suggested that environmental degradation, including the drainage of wetlands, should be viewed not only as an ecological problem but also as a potential national security risk.
Source: commonspace.eu with The Guardian and Politico
