Introduction
Assessing and valuing peatland ecosystem services for sustainable management
Peatlands provide vital services to society. They mitigate climate change, provide clean water and support biodiversity & tourism - but they are under threat.
Peatlands are an ideal case study for valuing nature research, given the growing evidence linking ecosystem functions, services and markets in peatlands.
The Valuing Peatlands project established a network of people from a wide range of different research areas and held three stakeholder workshops alongside a series of face-to-face and virtual writing workshops.
Aims
The Valuing Peatlands project aims to:
1. Use UK peatlands as a policy-relevant case study to:
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Identify options for valuing changes to stocks and flows of multiple ecosystem services in complex socio-ecological systems using both monetary and non-monetary approaches.
Review the scientific evidence base re: effects of peatland management on the processes that control delivery of ecosystem goods and services, consider the spatial distribution of ecosystem services in relation to management pressures & beneficiaries and potential trade-offs between provisioning, regulating, supporting and cultural services (VNN challenges 1-3).
Using this information to work towards identifying where restoration or conservation of peatlands would result in greatest net benefits (VNN challenges 1 and 3).
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Consider how this information might affect the design of financial mechanisms to lever investment in the provision of climate mitigation and adaptation
Review available regulatory and institutional frameworks for peatland Payment for Ecosystem Service (PES) schemes, and consider how different approaches to PES may influence uptake of peatland restoration and other forms of sustainable management, and how such schemes could minimise trade-offs between ecosystem services at a range of scales (VNN challenges 3 and 4).
Develop a roadmap for peatland Greenhouse Gas accounting and peatland carbon markets in the UK (VNN challenge 4).
2. Develop a peatland hub in which researchers and members of the practitioner and policy community can effectively communicate and work together to better understand the value of peatlands and manage them more sustainably.
Outputs
Project publications
Overview of project findings: Valuing peatland ecosystem services for sustainable management (ESCOM blog, August 2014)
Special section in Ecosystem Services:
- Assessing and valuing peatland ecosystem services for sustainable management (editorial)
- A framework for valuing spatially targeted peatland restoration
- Relationships between anthropogenic pressures and ecosystem functions in UK blanket bogs: Linking process understanding to ecosystem service valuation
- Investing in nature: Developing ecosystem service markets for peatland restoration (open access)
- Improving the link between payments and the provision of ecosystem services in agri-environment schemes
- Valuing water quality improvements from peatland restoration: Evidence and challenges
Other outputs
- Development of a road map to a UK Peatland Carbon Code, which was submitted as an opportunity to Defra’s Ecosystem Market’s Taskforce. This was jointly ranked as the top opportunity for businesses working with the natural environment, out of 40 opportunities that were assessed.
- Following from this, code development was further investigated in a Defra Payment for Ecosystem Services pilot project, and in the second phase of the Taskforce’s work, which recommended the development of such a code to the Secretaries of State for BIS, Defra and DECC.
- Launch of a UK Peatland Gateway to provide access to peatland research for policy-makers, practitioners and researchers.
- See presentations from project workshop on Reducing the Cost of the Water Framework Directive through Payments for Ecosystem Services or read the Storify (May 2012)
- Catchment management using payments for ecosystem services to restore and maintain upland peat (Info Brief, August 2012)
- Read a press release about our NERC internship with South West Water to pay for peatland restoration via payments for carbon, biodiversity and clean water (September 2012).
- See presentations from project workshop on Reducing the Cost of the Water Framework Directive through Payments for Ecosystem Services or read the Storify (May 2012)
Blogs
Professor Mark Reed discusses valuing peatland ecosystem services for sustainable management (ESCOM blog)
Why companies should be paying to protect ecosystems (Guardian Sustainable Business Blog, 2013)
Public engagement
Media coverage in the Guardian linked to Walshaw Estate story