Partners across the Great North Bog coalition are celebrating funding success of £6.9 million through the Nature for Climate fund (NfC), administered by Natural England. Combined with match-funding, the Great North Bog has attracted £9.3 million for restoration work through this year’s bidding round.
The Great North Bog is a landscape-scale approach to upland peatland – blanket bog – restoration and conservation across nearly 7,000 square kilometres of peatland soils in and around the upland Protected Landscapes (AONBs and National Parks) of northern England.
In the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and the Yorkshire Dales National Park, a £4.1 million NfC Restoration grant – combined with £1.4 million match funding – will enable 2,161 ha of peatland restoration to be delivered by the North Pennines AONB team and Yorkshire Peat Partnership.
Rachael Bice, Chair of the Great North Bog Board said:
“Public awareness around the value of healthy peatlands and their contribution to tackling the climate and biodiversity crises is increasing; the Great North Bog is a once in a lifetime opportunity to restore and connect upland peat habitats across northern England.
“Working together, at scale, with landowners and land managers, we’re thrilled at what we’ll be able to accomplish thanks to this Natural England funding.”
Paul Leadbitter, Peatland Programme Manager at North Pennines AONB Partnership, said:
“The Great North Bog is connecting some of the most successful peatland restoration organisations in Europe to boost this work across the north. Sharing knowledge and resources amongst our coalition partners will help us to achieve so much more than we could alone.”
Dr Tim Thom, Peat Programme Manager at Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, said:
“Blanket bog can help to address many of the problems we’re facing but it’s important to remember it’s not just a service provider. Healthy peatlands support so many beautiful and fascinating species; restoration will help to reverse the trend of decline in upland species.”
Around 80% of upland peatlands across the north of England were damaged when land managers were incentivised by the Government to drain them for agricultural improvement in the second part of the twentieth century. Combined with atmospheric pollution from industry, this led to spiralling erosion across these under-appreciated habitats. To restore them to their former glory, the drains are blocked, followed by management of the erosion features they helped to create. Once the water table is back near the surface, bog vegetation is planted to cover up the bare peat.
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. Avoided loss of 118,596 tonnes of carbon over the next 50 years will yield a greenhouse gas benefit of over £20 million.