Living Lowlands
The Living Lowlands Programme is a £4 million programme of work that sits at the heart of our vision for the future of lowland peat habitats. Focussing on iconic lowland landscapes and working with a range of stakeholders, the programme aims to restore a functioning lowland ecosystem on carbon-rich peaty soils.
The programme will boost biodiversity and increase the sustainability and resilience of these landscapes in the face of climate change. The programme will utilise a range of approaches: from direct peatland restoration and working with natural processes, to scaling up innovative interventions such as paludiculture, to deliver the best outcomes for nature on the ground. As an area of high challenge, we need the support of a partner to back our vision. We believe The Nature Recovery Project is that partner, with experience working with farmers, communities and innovative approaches to restoring nature. Together, we can achieve potentially high reward for nature and climate mitigation.
The nation’s peatlands are under threat – 80% are in a degraded state.
This means that instead of storing carbon, the UK’s peatlands are emitting at a rate of around 23 million tonnes a year. Most of those emissions are coming from peat in the lowlands, even though they represent only 16% of peatland types.
These rich, fertile soils make lowland landscapes highly agriculturally productive. This has meant that reducing these emissions and increasing biodiversity in lowland peaty areas – by organisations, local authorities and government – have not been treated as a priority. We believe the time is now to deal with the challenges facing our lowland peat in the same way we have embraced the plight of forests and oceans.