Funding boost for peatland restoration
- Published:
- 06 September 2023
- Last updated:
- 06 September 2023
Millions of pounds in Government funding have been awarded for peatland restoration across the Peak District National Park, to be carried out by Moors for the Future Partnership, and on land cared for by the National Trust in the Peak District.
Funding success
Partners across the Great North Bog coalition and at the National Trust are celebrating funding success after being awarded a significant share of the £16m Nature for Climate fund from Defra to boost peatland restoration projects across the country. This is part of wider funding which recognises the importance of restoring peatlands across Northern England to help tackle climate change and boost biodiversity.
In the Peak District National Park, Moors for the Future Partnership and the National Trust received £3.6m of the funding pot which will help them to continue their work to restore peatland and create areas of healthy blanket bog on a landscape scale. After a period of scoping and exploration across the iconic moors of the Peak District they identified projects which would help to capture carbon, provide homes for wildlife, reduce flood risk and improve water quality.
Working in partnership
Thanks to the latest funding, work is now able to start in the autumn to restore 678 hectares of the land in the care of the National Trust in the Bamford area and on moorland above Kinder Reservoir. Alongside this, Moors for the Future Partnership will be carrying out restoration work across 655 hectares, including in the Goyt and Roaches areas, where they’ll be assisted by a volunteer programme to plant large amounts of sphagnum moss.
The funding from Defra also attracted over £600,000 more in match-funding for Moors for the Future Partnership from United Utilities, Severn Trent, National Trust, BMC Access and Conservation Trust, Staffordshire Wildlife Trust, and a private donation. The work being carried out by the National Trust on the moors above Kinder Reservoir has attracted a further £600,000 in match-funding from United Utilities and National Trust.
Benefits for people, nature and climate
Craig Best, General Manager, National Trust in the Peak District, said:
“This funding is great news for precious peatlands up and down the country and I am proud to be a part of delivering peatland restoration in the Peak District with our partners.
It will allow work to take place on a scale that will have a bigger impact to tackle the climate crisis and will have countless benefits for local people and visitors, not to mention the wonderful wildlife which relies on moorlands being in good condition for food and shelter.”
Chris Dean, Partnership Manager for Moors for the Future Partnership, said:
“The importance of peatland restoration is now widely recognised, and we’re pleased that Defra has awarded this funding allowing us to continue the crucial work we’ve been doing for 20 years.
“This is a wonderful example of partnership working and we’re especially excited that it will allow us to mobilise the enthusiasm of volunteers who are set to help us in planting sphagnum moss, the essential bog-building plant.”
Reducing carbon emissions
This funding is part of the Government commitment to set 35,000 ha of degraded peatland in England on a path to restoration by March 2025 and reduce emissions from peat by 9 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2050.
The funding will make a huge contribution to the landscape’s future resilience to climate change and create significant benefits for greenhouse gas reduction, avoiding loss of loss of 79,000 tonnes of carbon by 2050.