By the end of 2009 the project contributed to restoration of hydrological regime at 12 project sites with total area of 25.717 ha. Three more territories: depleted peatlands Poplav Mokh, Scherbinsky Mokh and Zhadenovsky Mokh in the Vitebsk Region are to be rewetted by the end of the project. Total area of the restored mires in Belarus, including project sites, is 50.000 ha, including these 28.207 ha rewetted within the project.

Innovative for Belarus methodologies with construction of unique water regulating facilities are used by the project to restore hydrological regime at the target sites. For example a special one kilometer length dam was constructed for the first time in Belarus at the Morochno mire in the Stolin District, Brest Region. The dam creates barrier and prevents disturbance of the hydrological regime of the mire. The facility is designed for cases when hydrological regime of mires is disrupted by drainage systems of adjoining peat or agriculture fields. All in all nine types of hydrotechnical constructions: various dikes, regulation pipes, sluices, dams are used by the project to rehabilitate the mires’ ecosystems.

Practice of the project implementation revealed that rewetting probably is the cheapest way to reduce carbon dioxide (СО2) emissions into the atmosphere. Around 10-20 tones of СО2 emitted from each ha of the project territories before rewetting. In the result of the hydrological regime restoration at 12 degraded mires the carbon emissions decreased significantly and the process of СО2 absorption from the atmosphere began. Total reduction of carbon emissions from the restored sites is about 280.000 tones a year.

Complicated and sustained peat fires is a disaster of ecological and economic scales. Annually the Government allocates around 1.5 millions USD to fight peat fires. Rise of water level up to surface prevents fire from spreading around a mire and thereby saves vast areas of peatlands and adjoining territories from total burning. The fact that in 2008-2009 at the rewetted territories there were no records of big peat fire outbreaks confirms the efficiency of the measure.

Peat mires are one of the unique, valuable and at the same time extremely fragile types of natural ecosystems. It is a habitat to a big number plants, animals and birds, many of which belong to rare and endangered species and included into the Red Book of Belarus. Restoration of hydrological regime facilitates return of mire flora and fauna species. In 2009 at the rewetted mires it was possible to see such rare species of birds as greater spotted eagle, duck hawk, bittern, black-tailed godwit, gray and white herons, snipe, sedge warbler. Populations of wild boar, elk and mink started to increase at the territories.

Best practices in rewetting found its way to legislative documents. The project has facilitated development and printing of two technical codes of common practice on identification of directions of utilization of depleted peat deposits and other damaged mires and on rehabilitation of depleted peat deposits and other damaged peatlands through re-wetting.