Restoring peat soils requires long-term thinking and immediate, strategic action
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Peat is a special kind of soil. We are very aware that the midland raised bogs are a special type of habitat, home to carnivorous plants such as sundews, butterworts, and bladderworts — rich in insect life such as dragonflies, damselflies, and specialist butterflies like the endangered Marsh-fritillary. Peat bogs are where breeding waders such as Curlew, Red Grouse, Lapwing, Redshank and Snipe have been breeding for millennia, now struggling to survive because so much of their habitat has been lost in recent decades, due to a combination of drainage, peat mining, and plantation forestry.
Peatlands have also come into sharp focus over the past 20 years because they are the largest and most concentrated global store of carbon of all terrestrial ecosystems, containing twice the carbon of the forest biomass. But drainage reverses the process of carbon sequestration and instead, dry peat soils release vast quantities of carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere. Each hectare of drained bog, whether cutover or cutaway, emits six tonnes of carbon dioxide per year for each year that it remains dry. In Ireland, the cumulative impact of these emissions is enormous: drained peatlands here release 11 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year — about the same amount released by the Irish energy sector annually.
A combination of climate action targets and European nature conservation laws has resulted in recent efforts to restore peatlands, a process that reduced greenhouse emissions, allows the recovery of biodiversity, and helps mitigate water pollution too.
However, most of the focus to date has been on raised bogs, the vast majority of which have been mined peat moss, for electricity generation and for turf. A small proportion of raised bogs, those considered most eligible for restoration, are being actively restored. This involves blocking drainage ditches, disabling pumping facilities, and managing the water table so it remains close to the surface. Restoring drained bogs is considered by the UN as low-hanging fruit and among the most cost-effective options for mitigating climate change. Peatlands in State ownership have been prioritised for restoration, though progress has been slow. EU funding has been provided to restore designated Natura 2000 bogs and there are also some restoration projects underway by State-owned bodies Bord na Mona and Coillte.
But in Ireland, it’s not just the raised bogs we need to restore if we are to achieve climate and biodiversity targets. A whopping 20% of Ireland’s land area is covered by peat soils and an estimated 330,000 hectares of these peat soils across the country have been converted to grassland. If a proportion of these is to be restored, the private owners of these agricultural peat soils will need to be incentivised to ‘farm’ carbon. A recent survey found that the majority of farmers here (74%) agree that addressing climate change is urgent and the same strong majority agree that they can contribute to mitigating climate change on their farms. However many also believe that reducing emissions equates with reduced profits. Instead, with the right approach, the restoration of peat soils can be an opportunity for enormous investment in farm communities.
This is where financing climate action and dwindling farm incomes can combine. A disproportionate amount of farmed peat soils are on marginal land where farm incomes are most in need of additional support. With sufficient funding, guaranteed over decades, many farmers with peat soils will be more than willing to engage in restoration. Voluntary participation can be successful if adequately incentivised. There is no ‘one size fits all’ that will work; instead farmers need proper information and support to engage and a choice of approaches.
One such pilot initiative is the FarmPEAT programme, a voluntary scheme operating in the midlands for the past two years. The main aim of the scheme is reducing greenhouse gas emissions from peat soils, in addition to restoring biodiversity and improving water quality. With funding from the European Innovation Project, farmers voluntarily engaging in the pilot programme are paid according to the results achieved across their landholding. While they learn about the merits of various actions they can take, they have the flexibility to implement actions as they chose.
Pilot schemes such as these have developed workable approaches, although long-term commitments of funding are needed if results-based land management is to deliver results at scale. The current absence of long-term funding commitments has hampered progress so far and the vacuum of detailed national policy is no help to anyone. There is already a dearth of information and in the vacuum, misinformation is spreading and opposition to restoration is being stoked.
Hostility to the forthcoming Nature Restoration Law appears to be largely based on the targets for peatland restoration that it will necessitate, despite the fact that the DAFM’s own targets are already double what the Nature Restoration Law would require. Our national Climate Action Plan has already set targets for restoration of peat soils that are three times greater than the targets set by the proposed Nature Restoration Law.
Restoring these grass-covered peat soils across the country will not be an easy task, there are huge challenges to grapple with. Restoration takes time. Payments per hectare will have to reflect this — with assurances now that as peat soils recover and the seepage of carbon is gradually halted, payments will continue. Action is urgent, though gaining the goodwill and commitment of private landowners also takes time.
Peatland restoration is a key part of what needs to be done to avert the worst extremes of climate catastrophe and biodiversity collapse. As with most problems, a failure to respond in good time leads to the problem only getting worse. Restoring peat soils requires long-term thinking and immediate, strategic action. For this opportunity to be of benefit to the farmers as well as the common good, we all need to remain positive, resourceful, and determined.
This column has previously delved in to the role of peat bogs:
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