A nature conservation project jointly funded by EU DG-Environment and Coillte Teoranta (The Irish Forestry Board) under the EU LIFE- Nature Programme. The project is managed by Coillte Teoranta.
EU Project Number: Life 02 Nat/Irl/8490.
Locations of sites around Ireland include MacGillycuddys’ Reeks, Co. Kerry, Slieve Aughty, Co. Clare, Nephin Beg, Crossmolina, Glenamoy and Bangor-Erris, Co. Mayo, Barnesmore Gap and Lough Golagh, Co. Donegal, Ox Mountains, Co. Sligo and Slieve Blooms, Co. Laois.
Progress Report Year 1 (1st July 2002 – 30th June 2003) [View PDF Document]
Interim Report Year 2 (1st July 2002 – 30th June 2004) Incorporating 2nd Progress Report [View PDF Document] Progress Report Year 3 (1st July 2002 – 30th June 2005) [View PDF Document]
Modification Request (12th December 2005) Project modification request report [View PDF Document]
Progress Report Year 4 (1st July 2002 – 31st December 2006) [View PDF Document]
AUGER Project: peAtland properties inflUencing greenhouse Gas Emissions and Removals This project is funded under the EPA Research Programme 2014-2020
Background
Peatlands have played an important role in climate regulation over the past 10,000 years. Pristine peatlands in Ireland are currently a small C sink (absorbing CO2 while emitting CH4) but represent less than 20% of the current national resource. Anthropogenic disturbances, mainly in the form of drainage (for agriculture and forestry) and peat extraction result in increased CO2 and N2O emissions, and reduced CH4 emissions. There are two options for mitigating GHG emissions from peatlands: avoiding new or recurrent drainage and reducing emissions on the existing drained areas. Climate policy instruments involving mitigation on peat soils are not being implemented in Ireland due to lack of basic information on the peatland resource and in particular its properties. This knowledge gap should be addressed in order to fully quantify the role of human activities on the climate footprint of Irish peatlands. Therefore the main objective of this project is to carry out a nationwide survey to document the properties of various types of peatlands and peat soils, how they are affected by various management options and how this influences the C and GHG dynamics of these systems, thereby quantifying the role of human activities on the climate footprint of Irish peatlands.
The key objectives of the project are as follows:
1) Review of Ireland’s need for C stock and GHG flux monitoring capacities on peatland sites; Identification of priority site types; Assessment of potential candidate sites for such network, including detailed information on current monitoring sites as well as proposed programme of monitoring activities.
2) Review of current models and tools used to assess peatland condition, and review of the significance of peatland properties and management in modelling GHG emissions.
3) Characterisation of peatland types (LUC) and their associated edaphic and ecosystem properties. This will build on existing data to identify potential gaps to be filled and will be further informed by a nationwide peatland survey of physical, chemical and ecological parameters of peatlands and peat soils (and overall assessment condition). Compilation of database regrouping all types of peatlands under existing LUC (including ‘natural’) and management.
4) Support of on-going field observations and modelling of GHG emission/removals at 2 core peatland sites: Moyarwood and Clara bogs.
5) Modelling of anthropogenic impacts on GHG emissions: development of ECOSSE model with collaboration from modelling specialists in Scotland (training of post-doctoral researcher), to allow Ireland to move to Tier 3 level of reporting.
Targets:
Review of the requirements for a representative C observation network in Ireland including potential candidate sites.
Proposed programme of measurement activities to reliably characterise C stocks and GHG emissions/removals.
Database to include past and new field observations of all peat soils parameters; ecosystem properties and measurement protocols.
Development of a field guide for rapid assessment of peatland condition.
Field observations to supplement (a) existing GHG data and modelling database, and feed into WP3 database, GHG data to be used as independent validation of ECOSSE model outputs; (b) high resolution peat properties and (c) hydrological regime analysis.
Model output and site validation of simulated GHG emission/removals from various peatland LUCD; national upscaling of peatland GHG emission/removals (link with other project in this Call).
Knowledge capacity building available to EPA.
Four open-access peer-reviewed papers and four conference proceedings.
This 36 month project is based around 5 WPs with the project management led by University College Dublin (UCD) and partners in University of Limerick (UL), Trinity College Dublin (TCD) and Queen’s University Belfast (QUB), with input from Earthy Matters Environmental Consultants (EM). Find out more about the AUGER team here.
“This project is funded under the EPA Research Programme 2014-2020. The EPA Research Programme is a Government of Ireland initiative funded by the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment.”
The Wild Western Peatlands project will see Coillte Nature restore and rehabilitate approximately 2,100 hectares of Atlantic blanket bog and wet heath that is currently planted with commercial spruce and pine forests.
“These areas were planted to create rural employment at a time when the importance of peatlands for carbon storage and biodiversity was not well understood. The Wild Western Peatlands project will allow us to rehabilitate a rare habitat of international importance. Learnings from this project will help us to develop a range of solutions for rehabilitating other similar areas.” – Coillte Nature Director, Dr Ciarán Fallon
We will take an ecological approach to rehabilitating these sensitive landscapes, restoring bog and wet heath where possible, and taking other options into account where this is not feasible such as establishing native woodlands. Each site will be different and will have a management plan prepared to suit its particular characteristics.
Project Details
What?
Atlantic blanket bog
Where?
Peatlands in the west and northwest
Why?
To enhance biodiversity and improve carbon storage in the landscape
How?
Rewetting bogs and planting native pioneer birch woodlands on the margins
When?
2020 – 2024
Partners?
Various – stakeholder engagement in progress
Which sites will we be working on?
We have started surveying and planning work on a Wild Western Peatlands pilot site at Derryclare in Co. Galway and we expect to select several other large sites across the western seaboard as the project progresses.
The Coillte property at Derryclare lies to the west of Lough Inagh and Derryclare Lough in Connemara, north of the Galway to Clifden road (N59). This area is a key tourist and angling destination and is close to the Wild Atlantic Way and the Western Way. This iconic site is surrounded by the Twelve Bens/Garraun Complex Special Area of Conservation and contains areas of high biodiversity value, therefore offering great potential for resdesign and restoration. To the south-east of the property lies the Derryclare Nature Reserve, managed by the NPWS and one of the finest examples of semi-natural Atlantic oak woodlands in Ireland.
Get involved
We have started intital stakeholder engagement for this project and will continue with this throughout the various stages of the project. You can download a copy of our first Stakeholder Information Document. We aim to work in close collaboration with local communities, environmental NGOs, specialists and state agencies, so if you’re interested in working with us on this project or would like to learn more, contact our Outreach Manager Hedda Dick on hedda.dick@coillte.ie.
You can follow updates about this project in our Coillte Nature News section of the website.
Investigation into the Irish peatlands is fundamental into the development of tools for the wider environment and understanding the global carbon stocks including their effect on national and global carbon emission levels. This project is unique in its aims of determining the driver environmental variables which shape the carbon cycle of the peatland ecosphere and model the effect on the surrounding environment.
Sensor Platforms
Recent advances in sensors and sensor platforms for data collection present new ways to survey our environment. This project harnesses the Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm for environmental sensing focusing on investigating solutions to key impediments to implementation such as cost, suitability and data integrity.
Satellite Data Fusion
Collating and fusing data from satelllite imagery and that from in situ environmental monitoring solutions effectively remains an open challenge for environmental sciences. Investigating links between satellite imagery and data collected from on site sensors is a major focus for this project. The main goal is to discover proxy measurements through imagery that can act as an indicator to determine the true value on the ground.
Data Collection and Presentation
Environmental monitoring and data collection is central to the projects goals. All ongoing data collected during the project will be documented and made publicly available.
Pilot blanket bog restoration site in the catchment to see what effects the removal of sheep grazing has on blanket bog.
Surface of the bog has mostly recovered and revegetated and bare peat areas significantly reduced in extent.
Bare peat areas are liable to erosion during wet weather which can result in peat silt being washed into the river where Freshwater Pearl Mussel occur.
Threat has been significantly reduced from this site thanks to the help from local farmers.
Peatlands are the largest natural terrestrial carbon store. On the other hand, damaged peatlands are a major source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, annually releasing almost 6% of global anthropogenic CO2 emissions.On the global scale, the EU is the second largest emitter of GHG from drained peatlands (0.22 Gt CO2 eq./yr or 15% of total global peatland emissions). This is equivalent to circa 5% ofthe official EU GHG emissions total of 4.483 Gt CO2 eq./yr in 2017.
Peatland emissions are reported by EU countries in their National Inventory submissions to UNFCCC but are not yet fully accounted for in the National Inventories. LULUCF GHG emissions are due to be fully integrated into the EU GHG target by 2030. Peatland restoration, i.e. the revitalisation of the peatland ecosystems, can bring significant emission reductions. Although the value of mires for climate change mitigation, biodiversity and other ecosystem services is undisputed, their degradation and habitat loss across Europe is still ongoing.
This unfavourable situation has now been recognised, and an increasing number of peatland restoration projects and programmes have been implemented in peat-rich EU countries to revitalise their function as carbon and greenhouse gas sinks. However, the lessons learned and efforts are highly fragmented. Better EU-wide coordination and networking could lead to more efficient results.
OBJECTIVES
The main objective of the LIFE MULTI PEAT project is to contribute to the goals of EU climate change mitigation (CCM) policy through the restoration of peatlands in Poland (PL), Germany (DE), Belgium (BE), the Netherlands (NL) and Ireland (IE).
The specific objectives are threefold:
1) The large-scale practical restoration of degraded peatlands leading to the cessation of significant GHG emissions from these areas and the restoration of their carbon sink function, as well as the improvement of knowledge on techniques and tools for measuring GHG emissions;
2) The development of a knowledge base and replicable techniques for halting further significant emissions from different classes of degraded peatlands and ultimately restoring their potential as carbon sinks;
3) The development of effective policy tools, such as a peatland policy toolkit that includes an EU-wide policy catalogue, data portal, and a policy development tool that brings together in one place relevant information for policy makers, climate change activists, experts, and the public.
RESULTS
Expected results:
689 ha of degraded peatlands will be restored/hydrologically improved (PL: 252ha; DE: 60 ha; BE: 130 ha; NL: 30 ha; IE: 217 ha). In the impacted peatlands, the reduction of desiccation, peat decay, GHG emissions, and recovery of the conditions to restart their sequestering functions is expected;
Strategies for paludiculture in DE and BE sites will be developed and their implementation practically demonstrated (DE: paludiculture biomass usage on 10 ha and buffer strips on 0.75 ha; BE: 1 ha buffer strips);
The Global Warming Potential (GWP) on all sites will be reduced up to 50%: in total a potential reduction of GHG emissions of up to 3 600 t CO2-eq./yr, given as GWP: PL 1 008 t CO2-eq./yr; DE 610 t CO2-eq./yr; BE 1 094 t CO2-eq./yr; NL 480 t CO2-eq./yr; IE 447 t CO2-eq./yr;
Quality, accuracy, and replicability of GHG monitoring instruments and standards, also for heterogeneous nature areas: calculated GHG savings potential from all sites will be improved;
GHG emissions data from peatlands including data from selected EU projects (ongoing and completed) will be collected and improved;
Numerous policy-relevant documents developed/prepared: country policy fact-sheets, key policy analyses and recommendations, Policy Toolkit, recommendations for scaling up peatland restoration, national reviews of CAP impact on peatlands and GHG emission, recommendation for long-term habitat management in agricultural landscapes;
Carbon Credit certificates issued (for each verified ton of carbon saved by the project) and sold.
Ecological and conservation status of project areas will be improved through restoration:
20% increase of indicator species abundance (vegetation coverage)
Mean groundwater level between -10 to -20 cm below ground surface, with a maximum range of +10 cm in winter and -30 cm in summer,
Improvement of baseflow conditions by a project average of 15%,
Quality improvement of Natura 2000 habitats (PL: 7110, 7120, 7230, 91D0; BE: 7140, 91E0*; NL: 7120, 7110, 4010, 3130, 3160),
IE: Analysis and recommendations for increasing the extent of Natura 2000 designated sites and habitat improvement for the Greenland white fronted goose.
Start Date: 01/10/2021 End Date: 30/09/2026 Total Budget: 7,763,615 € EU Contribution: 4,269,983 €
Coordinating Beneficiary: Naturschutzbund Deutschland (NABU) e.V. Legal Status: PNC Address: Charitéstr. 3, 10117, Berlin, Deutschland Contact Person: Tom Kirschey Email: Tom.Kirschey@NABU.de Tel: 49302849841172 Website: http://nabu.de
Irish site / site map unlisted, requested details from Project Office
The Source to Tap INTERREG VA funded project is working on a pilot forest-to-peatland restoration project at Tullychurry in Co. Fermanagh which they hope will restore approx. 32ha of the previous commercial conifer plantation to a functioning bog.
The pilot is trialling a technique called cell bunding and comparing the recovery of the water table in the bog to other areas where rather than building cell bunds only the drains are blocked. The restoration will demonstrate multiple benefits for nature, carbon capture and water quality in the future.
Source to Tap is a €4.9m project to protect and improve our rivers and lakes in the Erne and Derg cross border catchments.
The project is funded and supported by the European Union’s INTERREG VA Programme, with match funding from the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) in Northern Ireland and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (DHLGH) in Ireland and managed by the Special EU Programmes Body, (SEUPB).
NI Water is the lead partner and the Source to Tap project unites water companies from both sides of the Ireland-Northern Ireland border, with Irish Water a partner as well as bringing together the Agri-Food Biosciences Institute, Ulster University, The Rivers Trust and East Border Region.
Initial results from the pilot will be made available in a technical report in 2021.
On our test site at Tullychurry, where different peat restoration methods have been trialled, the first step was to cut down the plantation forest that covered the land. It was also essential to flatten out the soil which had been plowed in a ridge and furrow pattern, as the greater surface area increases moisture loss. The team could then focus their efforts on bringing water levels back up by preventing it from escaping. Two methods were trialled: cell bunding and drain blocking.
Sphagnum mosses play a vital role in the creation of peat bogs: by storing water in their spongy forms, they prevent the decay of dead plant material and eventually form peat. Encouraging its recolonisation is therefore an important part of the restoration process and after the initial work raising the water table, some of the trial land was sprayed with sphagnum seed to see whether this speeded up the process.
Deep trench or cell bunding is the construction of watertight cells made from low peat walls, constructed at a 90 degree angle to the slope with a bund roughly every 30 cm fall in height.
“Finger bunds” are then constructed at intervals in line with the slope, joining the parallel bunds to prevent lateral erosion and wave action. By creating these watertight cells it allows the water table to rise, encouraging the growth of sphagnum moss.
Drain blocking is a popular method of peatland restoration. Peat dams were used to block each drain at 12 m intervals or every 30 cm drop in ground level. Dams were constructed using saturated peat from a borrow pit adjacent to the dam location and covered with vegetation and brash to prevent wind and rain erosion.
The control area was used to compare methods of current forestry best practice, observed on another restoration site, with other restoration methods. In this area, drains were blocked with peat dams only where they exited the area.
Each of the three restoration areas were monitored using piezometers. These are shallow groundwater wells which are sunk around 1.5-2 m into the ground and were used to monitor water table recovery post restoration. A fourth area, of intact blanket bog was also monitored as a comparison.
Farming with nature in the midland raised bog landscape.
The FarmPEAT Project is funded by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and has a budget of €1.2 million and will run for two years.
The FarmPEAT (FarmPayments for Ecological and Agricultural Transitions) Project is developing a locally-led, innovative, results-based farm scheme for farmers who manage lands that surround some of Ireland’s finest remaining raised bogs.
Raised bogs represent one of the most valuable natural ecosystems in Ireland and the transition to agricultural lands that surround them can play an important role in maintaining and enhancing their long term conservation value.
Working with local farmers, the project will design and trial a programme especially adapted to the local landscape that will incentivise the delivery of enhanced environmental outcomes.
The programme will reward farmers for improved management of habitats on peat soils along with other important landscape features such as eskers, field boundaries and watercourses. The programme will be results-based in that farmers will get paid depending on the scores they achieve, with higher scores, indicating higher environmental quality, getting higher payments.
It is hoped that this programme will form a basis for future agri-environmental schemes in these areas. As such it presents an opportunity for farmers to be involved in developing policy that could provide long term environmental and economic benefits to their communities into the future.
The FarmPEAT Project will be operating at up to eight candidate study sites centered on raised bogs or former raised bog areas. These sites are located in the Irish midland counties of Roscommon, Offaly, Kildare and Westmeath. Check out our Project Sites Pages to find out more about these sites and for maps of each site.
Coupled with the development of the results-based agri-environmental model, the FarmPEAT Project will assist farmers and the broader community to transition towards a more sustainable use of the peatland resource in the area through a range of educational tools and peer mentoring.
Project Areas Overview
These sites are located in the Irish midland counties of Roscommon, Offaly, Kildare and Westmeath. The sites were selected in order to represent the geographic spread of raised bogs in the midlands and also, at some of the sites, to allow for the FarmPEAT Project to support already completed restoration work and research conducted on the high bogs themselves. In addition, it was important to us when selecting the sites to choose raised bog sites that have a significant proportion of agricultural land surrounding them.
Some of the sites are protected under national (e.g Cloncrow (New Forest) Bog NHA) and international legislation (e.g. Clara Bog Special Area of Conservation). We focused on designated sites for two main reasons:
1. To reward farmers that have previously been impacted by designation of lands, and
2. To allow the project to benefit from baseline ecological and hydrological information available for these sites.
Clink on the links below to find out more about these sites.
Carbon Connects aims to reduce the high carbon footprint of peatland soils in Northwest Europe by introducing new bio-based business models developed for sustainable land management practices.
Oughterard, Galway Ireland
Area: 3-4 ha
Objective: Carrying out restoration by re-wetting the degraded blanket peatland and replanting it with Sphagnum or other wetland plants such as Ling Heather, Bog Asphodel etc for reduction of GHG gases i.e. CO2 and CH4 reduction.
Business model(s): Blue services => water purification by restored peat vegetation.
Care-Peat is an Interreg North-West Europe (NWE) project with 12 partners working together to reduce carbon emissions and restore the carbon storage capacity of different types of peatlands in North-West Europe.
The main partnership consists of 7 knowledge institutes and 5 nature organisations from Belgium, France, Ireland, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
Together with 5 sub-partners and 47 associated partners, we develop and test new techniques and socio-economic strategies for carbon reduction.
What does Care-Peat do?
The main goal of Care-Peat is to set up and demonstrate innovative technologies for new restoration and carbon measurement techniques and involve local and regional stakeholders.
Therefore the nature organisations, together with local landowners, restore peatlands of 7 different pilot sites ranging from one to 250 hectares and demonstrate the (potential) carbon savings of the restoration.
For each pilot site different restoration techniques are used – from manual management to growing additional peat moss.
Throughout the project the organisations are supported by the knowledge institutes that work together to develop and test new equipment, methods and models to predict carbon flows (e.g. by the use of drones and satellites to guide restoration and provide input for carbon models).
Care-Peat also works with innovative companies in the field of restoration and develops partnerships with local and regional stakeholders to increase the impact of pilots and maximise socio-economic benefits.
Important outputs of Care-Peat are the publication of a management and decision support tool and a set of socio-economic models concerning the best options for peatland restoration in regard to carbon storage. This way the results of the project are transferred and replicated to users across North-West Europe to determine the most appropriate management measures, even after Care-Peat has ended.
In 2021, as part of the Interreg NWE programme, the Care-Peat project was given the opportunity to strengthen its scope with a so called ‘capitalisation project’.
The aim is to apply the project results to new areas and a new target group in North-West Europe.
The approval resulted in no less than 3 new partners and 6 new associated partners who joined our consortium.
In the capitalisation project we develop a unified methodology for assessing GHG emissions from peatlands, that is widely applicable in North-West Europe (different peatland types and regions), and thus increase the impact of the decision support tool.
Also we include farmers and farmer organisations as a new main target group by engaging with them directly and incorporate best practices for carbon savings on farmland.
How much carbon can be saved?
Care-Peat is ambitious. By the end of the project in 2023, we expect that about 8137 tonnes of carbon emissions per year are prevented from losses and stored in the 7 pilot sites (in total approximately 645 hectares).
After 2023 we hope that nature conservation and other organisations all over the North-West Europe region will take further measures, resulting in the restoration of many more peatlands. A
nd the more peatlands are restored, the more carbon is saved. In this way peatlands can become an important natural partner in climate policies across North-West Europe.
Partners: National University of Ireland Galway (NUI)
GOAL: Cloncrow Bog is designated as a Natural Heritage Area (NHA) which consists of 200ha.
Former activities resulted in loss of habitat. Current land uses on the site comprise active peat-cutting to the east of the high bog margin and afforestation on both the high bog and the cutover.
The Care-Peat pilot consists of 26 ha which will undergo drain blocking and vegetation restoration.
