Partners across the Great North Bog coalition are celebrating funding success of £2.9 million through the Nature for Climate Peatland Grant Scheme (NCPGS), administered by Natural England. Combined with match-funding, the Great North Bog has attracted £3.9 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. 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 110,000 tonnes of carbon by 2050.
In the North Pennines and Nidderdale Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs) and the Yorkshire Dales National Park, £1.08 million from the NCPGS – combined with £362,000 match funding – will fund 1,270 ha of peatland restoration, delivered by North Pennines AONB Partnership and Yorkshire Peat Partnership, led by Yorkshire Wildlife Trust. Northumberland Peat Partnership was also able to secure a £480,000 Discovery Grant to enable it to survey and prepare peatland sites for future restoration works.
Rachael Bice, Chair of the Great North Bog Board said:
“The Great North Bog coalition extends across all of the protected landscapes of northern England. Our spectacular, atmospheric uplands offer beauty, tranquillity, space to unwind, and nature-based solutions to climate change.
”This Government funding will allow us to restore our peatlands for people to visit and enjoy as well as helping us to make significant strides towards tackling the climate and biodiversity crises”
Paul Leadbitter, Peatland Programme Manager at North Pennines AONB Partnership, said:
“Nature doesn’t stop where fences start; the Great North Bog is a once in a lifetime opportunity to connect and restore upland peat habitats across northern England and depends on collaboration. Landowners and managers, utilities companies, NGOs, public agencies, and private finance are working together to knit our upland mosaic into one great blanket… bog.”
Rosie Snowden, Peat Programme Manager at Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, said:
“Blanket bog is a resilient, diverse and beautiful habitat. It stores carbon; slows the flow of water from the hills; filters our drinking water; and, most importantly, is a home for an amazing range of fascinating and wonderful plants and animals. Species like golden plover, curlew and the carnivorous sundew need healthy peatlands to thrive and survive.”
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 half 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.