WP4: Policy and Practice for Peatland Transformations

WP4: Policy and Practice for Peatland Transformations

Objective: To produce a suite of recommended governance reforms to scaffold the social innovations necessary to achieve transformative change in relation to peatland restoration on agricultural land and integrate land use goals within the Scottish and English contexts.

Co-leads: Jill Robbie and Larissa Naylor

Contributors: Deborah Dixon, Amy Proctor, Miranda Geelhoed and Stuart Brown

Approach: This work package will examine what governance reforms are required to facilitate peatland restoration on agricultural land. It will be dedicated to policy implementation and integration of land use policy goals. 

Using both the physical and social capacities of the land and its users (work packages 1 and 2), this work package will explore reforms to support peatland restoration on agricultural land. A menu of potential reforms will be discussed in two adaptive governance workshops (one per region) with key land and policy stakeholders. The workshops will identify roles and responsibilities of the different stakeholders within different future governance scenarios, as well as the feasibility and desirability of these options.

This work package will also identify ‘windows of opportunity’ for integration between the various land policy agendas through a systematic, desk-based analysis, and suggest pathways for integration in Scottish and English contexts. The level of land policy and legislative reform in Scotland and England is unprecedented, providing a vital environment to implement change informed by interdisciplinary research. This work package will be key to RESPECT’s impact strategy.

Key outputs for this work package will include:

• A suite of proposed governance reforms.
• Identification of ‘windows of opportunity’ for integration of land use goals in Scotland/England.
• Responses to legislative consultations from the perspective of peatland restoration.