RESPECT

RESPECT – Rapid Engagement with Stressed Peatland Environments and Communities in Transformation

Peatlands are one of the world’s most important habitats and the largest terrestrial carbon store. However, 80% of UK peatlands are damaged and deteriorating, meaning they are often a carbon source rather than sink. 

The RESPECT (Rapid Engagement with Stressed Peatland Environments and Communities in Transformation) project will produce data, methods, landholder tools and proposals for governance reforms to change agricultural practices on peatland and contribute to the UK’s net zero target. We will achieve this by collating data through novel interdisciplinary collection, modelling and engagement methods. These data will establish the capacity of land and land users to contribute to the net zero target as well as generate other social and environmental co-benefits, balanced against conflicting land use demands, within the context of climate change. 

Informed by this baseline data, the project will produce the Peatland Triage Tool (PTT), providing decision-support for landowners, land managers, farmers and crofters (collectively ‘landholders’) seeking to undertake peatland restoration. Governance reforms will be proposed to scaffold the social innovations necessary for transformative change. Two case study regions – the Forth and Humber Catchments in Scotland and England – will be investigated in-depth, where tensions exist between food production, historic environment preservation, carbon sequestration and ecological restoration.

Map of the two case study areas