Land Use Policy 101 (2021) 105206 0264-8377/© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Policies for wetlands implementation in Denmark and Sweden – historical lessons and emerging issues Morten Graversgaard a, *, Brian H. Jacobsen b , Carl Christian Hoffmann c , Tommy Dalgaard a , Mette Vestergaard Odgaard a , Charlotte Kjaergaard d , Neil Powell e, f , John A. Strand g , Peter Feuerbach g , Karin Tonderski h a Department of Agroecology, Aarhus University, Blichers All´ e 20, P.O. Box 50, DK-8830, Tjele, Denmark b Department of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen, Rolighedsvej 23, DK-1870, Frederiksberg C, Denmark c Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Vejlsøvej 25, P.O. Box 314, DK-8600, Silkeborg, Denmark d SEGES, Landbrug & Fødevarer F.m.b.A., Agro Food Park 15, 8200, Aarhus N, Denmark e Swedish International Centre of Education for Sustainable Development, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden f Sustainability Research Centre, University of the Sunshine Coast, Sunshine Coast 4558, Queensland, Australia g Hushållningss¨ allskapet Halland, Lilla B¨ oslid, Eldsberga, Sweden h Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology, Link¨ oping University, Sweden ABSTRACT Natural wetlands used to cover a significant part of the landscape, but these ecosystems have declined by >50% worldwide, and even more in Denmark and Sweden. However, since the 1980s, various policies have been implemented to restore and create wetlands. This study provides a comprehensive historical overview of policies used to stimulate the creation and restoration of wetlands in Denmark and Sweden, and also analyses what factors have facilitated participation or have been barriers for landowners. The analysis of wetlands implementation programmes in Denmark showed a change towards narrower focus on nitrogen reduction from 1998 and onwards, whereas policies in Sweden often have had a wider multifunctional purpose. In both countries, there has been a change in the compensation structure from a lump sum to annual payments, parallel to an observed increase in costs for wetlands implementation. There is still a large potential for recreating many more wetlands, and the national targets have not been reached in neither Denmark nor Sweden. Key success factors, for future wetlands implementation are sufficient compensation levels, flexible scheme designs and information-based strategies documenting relevant benefits and sustainability issues. In general, more advice and support from the state, regional and local participants, and farmers’ organisations, are required to increase the participation and achieve successful and cost-efficient wetlands implementation. A collaborative and catchment-based approach holds promise, where wetland governance can serve as a platform for collaboration between policy bodies and between farmers. Additionally, politicians and decision makers need to accept the area targets presented to them when setting policy goals for wetlands implementation, and to accept that restoring and constructing wetlands requires long implementation times before results can be demonstrated. 1. Introduction Natural wetlands cover only 6 % of the total land area worldwide (Junk et al., 2013), yet they constitute an essential part of the world’s ecosystems, necessary for humans and the sustainability of natural capital. Over the past 200 years, there has been a massive decline in natural wetlands, mainly caused by human activities, which have altered and degraded wetlands, resulting in the loss of more than half of the world’s inland wetlands (Moser et al., 1998; Zedler and Kercher, 2005). The main factors leading to this decline and alteration relate to anthropogenic changes in land use and changes to the hydrological regime due to increases in agricultural, forestry, and biomass production (O’Connell, 2003; van Asselen et al., 2013). The deteriorating trend continues today (Junk et al., 2013; Davidson, 2014; Gardner et al., 2015). In some areas of the world, the decline of wetlands is even higher, e. g., more than 90 % of the wetland areas in Denmark have disappeared in the period 1900–1990 (Hoffmann and Baattrup-Pedersen, 2007), and in Sweden, more than 65 % of naturally occurring wetlands has been lost (Silva et al., 2007). Additionally, about 80 % of the current wetlands in Sweden are affected by human actions, especially by drainage activities and increase in forestry areas (Gunnarsson and L¨ ofroth, 2014; B¨ orjesson, 2003; Silva et al., 2007; Andersson, 2011; Cui et al., 2014). The loss of wetlands is problematic. Wetlands provide multiple * Corresponding author. E-mail address: morten.graversgaard@agro.au.dk (M. Graversgaard). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Land Use Policy journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/landusepol https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2020.105206 Received 24 July 2019; Received in revised form 31 August 2020; Accepted 22 November 2020