PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
A significant and increasing proportion of upland blanket bog systems in northern England are no longer active (i.e. not forming new peat), due to a range of historic and current atmospheric and direct drivers of change including atmospheric pollution, climate change, burning, drainage, over-grazing and peat extraction. The North Pennines AONB contains the largest continuous blanket bog system in England. Within this, the project focus is on eight blanket bog habitat locations (totalling 65 810 ha) of which three are in designated Natura 2000 network sites (North Pennine Moors, Moor House Upper Teesdale, and Bowland Fells) and five are non-designated sites. According to Natural England, 90% of the priority for conservation, blanket bogs, habitat is in an unfavourable condition, with reference to the Habitats Directive, in the project area.
OBJECTIVES
The aim of the Pennine PeatLIFE project was to demonstrate and evaluate geographically appropriate restoration techniques for the Annex I Habitats Directive priority habitat, blanket bogs (7130*), which are suited to the harsher climatic environment of northern England. The project also developed and showcased a financial payment for ecosystem services (PES) mechanism under the UK Peatland Code. Pennine PeatLIFE directly targeted the restoration of 1 353 ha of badly eroded blanket bogs habitat, both within Natura 2000 sites and in undesignated upland sites. In addition, it demonstrated and evaluated Sphagnum-based methods to determine which provide the most cost-effective and widely applicable solution to blanket bog restoration; this was used as the basis for a PES instrument. To achieve a viable PES, restoration techniques should be at a low enough cost to provide an appropriate level of incentive for landowners and managers to adopt blanket bog conservation measures.
The project determined the most cost-effective PES restoration approach by:
- demonstrating financially viable region-specific and sustainable Sphagnum-based restoration techniques for re-activating peat-forming blanket bog in the wetter, colder and higher altitude eroded bog systems of northern England;
- demonstrating through ‘Concept to Contract’ trials, the UK Peatland Code, as a viable payment for ecosystem services (PES) approach for upland peatlands;
- demonstrating new approaches, using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), to assess vegetation change as a proxy measure for monitoring the trajectory of change in ecosystem services benefits of blanket bog restoration and as a validation tool for the UK Peatland Code financial instrument;
- disseminating the demonstration activities to policymakers, landowners and managers, government agencies, NGOs, and other key stakeholders in the UK and across the EU.
RESULTS
The project ran from July 2017 to June 2023 and was delivered by the North Pennines AONB partnership led by Coordinating Beneficiary Durham County Council. This was a very successful project, which delivered on most of its objectives. Large scale blanket bog restoration has been the central aspect of the project and with all specific targets exceeded, this project has delivered a significant environmental legacy. The project brought together best practice habitat restoration, high levels of awareness-raising and networking and progressed the development the UK Peatland Code as an example of payment for ecosystem services. Significant environmental benefits were delivered, and the project has made good progress in moving the blanket bog to favourable condition in the targeted areas allowing the vegetation to become less stressed and more resilient. More specifically, the stabilisation of eroding peat and Sphagnum establishment work will already be helping to reduce peat erosion.
Main achievements:
- restored over 1 780 ha of blanket bog;
- reduced the erosion in 175 km of eroding gullies with sediment traps and dams;
- reprofiled 98 km of hagg edges and gullies;
- revegetated 154 ha of bare peat;
- re-established vegetation on bare peat areas with 696 784 plug plants, made up of Sphagnum moss, cotton grass and dwarf shrub plug plants;
- avoided the release of an estimated 26 000 tonnes of CO2 and other greenhouse gases through restoration activities;
- trialed the UK Peatland Code monitoring protocol and have fed back results to the IUCN UK Peatland Programme;
- used UAV alternatives to ground-based monitoring to assess changes in bare peat and vegetation cover over large areas;
- completed a report that compares UAV and ground-based monitoring strategies.
