The research program of the industrial chair addresses a major social issue: the need to protect natural resources and to ensure wise, sustainable use of the environment for future generations. The chair program is divided in four main research avenues that will be explored for the next five years (renewal period: 2003-2008):
1. Restoration and reclamation of Sphagnum dominated peatlands after peat mining. The term "ecological restoration" means the process of assisting the recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged, or destroyed. The main objectives of reclamation are to stabilize the soil surface, to assure public safety, to improve aesthetics, and, usually, to return the land to what, within the regional context, are considered to be useful purposes.
2. Fen and wet meadow restoration
3. Sphagnum production on a renewable basis (Sphagnum farming)
4. Implication for management