The most obvious way to maintain the ecosystem services that peatland provides is conservation of intact peatlands. This is even more true given the limited success of restoration projects especially in tropical peatlands. The conserved peatland still holds value for humans and hence provides a number of ecosystem services e.g. carbon storage, water storage and discharge. Conserving peatlands also avoids costly investments. Conservation is suggested to be a very cost-effective management practice for peatlands. The most obvious ecosystem services that the conservation management provides - i.e. carbon storage and water storage - are not easily priced on the market. Therefore, peatland conservation may need to be subsidised.
To rewet peatland and thereby restore the water table level is the first step in the restoration. The intention is to recreate the hydrological function and processes of the peatland. This takes a longer time than may be expected. Studies have found that rewetted previously drained peatland had the hydrological functions - e.g. water storage and discharge capacity - somewhere between a drained and an intact peatland six years after the restoration.
Undrained peatlands are recommended to be left for conservation and not used for paludiculture. Drained peatlands, on the other hand, can be rewetted and used for paludiculture often using traditional knowledge together with new science. However local communities, especially in the tropics, maintain their livelihood by draining and using the peatland in various ways e.g. agriculture, grazing, and peat mining. Paludiculture can be a way to restore degraded and drained peatlands as well as maintaining an outcome for the local community. For example, studies of Sphagnum cultivation on re-wetted peat bogs in Germany shows a significant decrease of greenhouse gas emission compared to a control with irrigated ditches. The economic feasibility of Sphagnum cultivation on peat bogs are however still unclear. The basis for paludiculture is however very different in the south, among other things because of higher population and economic pressure on peatland.