Carbon Connects

Quantifying moss moisture stresses in undrained, afforested and rewetted peatlands located in Republic of Ireland using laboratory measurements and computer modelling Amey S. Tilak,Kenneth A. Byrne AJonay Jovani-Sancho Matthew Saunders Seamus Hoyne First published: 25 October 2021

READ FULL ARTICLE: https://doi.org/10.1002/eco.2374

Carbon Farming on Peatlands could be great for Farmers and for the Planet – EU Report A new white paper on Carbon Credits and Ecosystem Services jointly launched by the EU Carbon-Connects & Care-Peat projects at the A3CA webinar Sustainable Farming for Peatlands, has found that with the right framework in place it should be possible to finance the restoration of damaged peatlands, implement sustainable/alternative practices on peat soils, significantly reduce Greenhouse Gas emissions and provide a good living for farmers all at the same time.

“Right at the start of the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030 and following on from the hugely successful Peatland Pavilion at COP26 two key EU Peatland Projects Carbon Connects and Care Peat have joined forces to develop a White Paper entitled TOWARDS A CARBON CREDIT & BLUE CREDIT SCHEME FOR PEATLANDS”, said Niall Ó Brolcháin of NUI Galway, the policy lead of the EU Care Peat project involving 5 European countries (IE UK NL BE FR).

The paper includes an analysis of a number of existing Peatland Carbon Credit schemes and accreditation standards and explores the potential of using Carbon Credits and other Ecosystem services to fund Peatland Restoration across Europe on a very large scale.

According to Valentina Sechi of Carbon Connects and Van Hall Larenstein University in the Netherlands, “The launch of this White Paper should provide a much-needed boost for peatland restoration in the EU where degraded Peatlands contribute more than 5% of all Greenhouse Gas emissions. Carbon Credits combined with payment for other Ecosystem Services can potentially provide farmers and other landowners with a good source of income from Peatland restoration projects. However, we have to take into account, the so-called paradox of additionality which can effectively reward bad environmental practice instead of good practice”.

The White Paper compares incomes from various types of farming common on peatlands across Europe with potential incomes from the sale of Carbon Credits and Ecosystem Services such as water storage and water purification.

Conclusions of the White Paper
1. Current farming systems do not effectively support sustainable farming in Europe and they are heavily dependent on subsidies.
2. Examples show that the sale of Peatland Carbon Credits is feasible if the right framework is put in place.
3. International accreditation standards are too expensive for small peatland projects so an easy and cheap system is needed. Examples show that a site type methodology using proxy measurements may be highly effective.
4. An integrated framework for Carbon Credits + Ecosystem Services is needed.
5. Provision of subsidies for peatland restoration and maintenance is required while subsidies exist for other activities.

DOWNLOAD PAPER 

>>WATCH THE LAUNCH

Contact: Valentina Sechi, valentina.sechi@hvhl.nl

https://www.iucn-uk-peatlandprogramme.org/events/peatland-pavilion-cop26 VISIT THE PAVILION: https://storage.net-fs.com/hosting/6147066/7/

GET TO KNOW THEM: https://www.globalpeatlands.org/

FINAL CONFERENCE CARBON CONNECTS How can we restore and protect peatlands?

This has been the subject of four years of research by the Carbon Connects and CANAPE projects. During the international symposium ‘Sustainable peatlands: A win for all’ in October, the innovative techniques, business models and policy options that have been developed over these years will be presented.

ALL CONFERENCE INFORMATION HERE

PRESS RELEASE

Today the European Commission published the final report of a two-year study on how to set up and implement carbon farming in the EU. Building on this study and on the input from several EU-funded projects and events, the Commission plans to launch the carbon farming initiative by the end of 2021.

More information and links to the studies HERE

Read the white paper here

As Europe grapples with the challenge of delivering against its revised 2030 emission targets, and reaching net zero by 2050, it must consider all options available for meeting these objectives. Agriculture, often seen as a contributor to the production of greenhouse gases, now has the potential become part of the solution.

Advancements in soil management technologies, accumulated understanding of regenerative agriculture practices and greater ability to collect and analyse vast amounts of soil-related data create the unprecedented opportunity to accelerate the adoption of regenerative farm practices and transform agriculture into a cost-effective, large-scale, and reliable carbon sink. Furthermore, that transformation of agriculture into a large carbon sink can also advance a wider climate, economic and environmental agenda including greater climate resilience and food safety, more sustainable farming, and innovation and investment to drive green growth in the agriculture sector.

Capturing this opportunity requires an strong alignment of stakeholders – farmers, investors, technologists, academics, NGOs and policy-makers – to set strict environmental standards, deploy technologies to cost-effectively collect data and calculate credibly carbon benefits, design economic incentives to change farmers’ practices and catalyse large-scale investment and innovation in the sector.

This Roundtable addressed the questions of how to spark such alignment and change to grasp the opportunities presented by carbon farming, as well as how to overcome some of the potential barriers and concerns.

This debate was headed by a panel, chaired by MEP Norbert Lins, moderated by Jurgen Tack of ELO; joined by MEP Paolo de Castro; Thierry de l'Escaille of ELO and Georg Goeres from Indigo.

This paper was published by the project CINDERELLA and is based on a large-scale European field survey on paludiculture. Based on this European wetland survey, paludiculture holds a great potential to combine peat preservation, water purification, nutrient removal, and a high biomass production. Paludicrops take up substantial amounts of nutrients, and both summer and winter harvests provide an effective way to sequester carbon in a range of high-valued biomass products and to control nutrient effluxes from rewetted sites at the landscape scale.

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Check out the full article: https://www.rug.nl/research/portal/files/117792023/drentsche_aa_ghg.pdf

Rewetting can effectively reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from drained peatlands. Reliable emissions estimation approaches are needed for accounting of such reductions and for evaluating the potential in terms of carbon

Here we combine vegetation and water level proxies to estimate emissions, by using bioindication of vegetation communities for water level together with the linear correlation between annual mean water level and GHG fluxes

GHG emissions are estimated using linear regression models of gas fluxes against mean annual water levels. This approach provides spatially explicit and quantitative estimation of mean annual water levels and GHG fluxes. When combined with information on spatial patterns and variances, the resulting estimations can promote recognition of the carbon co-benefits of biodiversity restoration while facilitating more site specific optimisation of management practices.

Keep Peat Wet to Reduce Flood Risks!

A student project that has recently been carried out by environmental science students at the VHL University, NL.

 They looked at the moisture-absorbing capacity of peat and how this relates to the degree of degradation. Their gradation 1 is subdivided (so not degraded), 4 is strongly degraded (strongly degraded / oxidised). Veldverse, less degraded peat absorbs more water, thus potentially generating more reduction of flood risk. If you let it dry out completely, the relationship reverses: then the most dehydrated peat absorbs the most moisture, but that is only 1/3 of what unearthed and not dehydrated peat absorbed.

Conclusion: if the peat keeps wet, it can contribute to the reduction of flood risks by retaining peak showers in the soil. If you let it dry out too much, then this function of peat deteriorates considerably.

This is how green the Netherlands can be in 2120!🙌🌍 Greener cities, food and electricity production on sea and a sustainable water management. Check out the not only desirable but also POSSIBLE climate-proof plan developed by Wageningen University!

https://magazines.wur.nl/climate-solutions-nl/nederland-in-2120/

Using the World Soil day to put the importance of peat in the picture! Check out our Twitter to learn about the activities of our consortium on this day. @CarbonConnects

A very successful meeting with 4 Peat-project, to bundle forces, we discovered very promising opportunities! CCONNECTS CARE-PEAT CANAPE PEAT-RESTORE Some of our outcomes for cooperation in the near future: - Synchronize Partner meetings - Welcome eachother on workshops and fieldtrips - Joint final conferences in Brussels - Shared communication tool - Common Advisory boards - Common communication to send out strong messages to a broad audience - Student involvement Looking forward to the enrollment of our plans!

“Avoiding loss of high-carbon soils through peatland mapping and monitoring for climate action” Monday 02 December 2019 16:45–18:15 Madrid Climate Change Conference, COP 25, Room 1 Peatlands cover less than 3 percent of the Earth's surface but hold the largest terrestrial organic carbon stock in their soils. To avoid peatland drainage and the rapid decrease of their carbon storage and consequent greenhouse gas emissions, it is essential to know where peatlands are located by further develop national peatland maps. Peatland mapping is a solid base to advance with climate-smart policy frameworks, land use planning and monitoring. Latest experiences, technology and guidelines of peatland mapping, monitoring and management techniques will be shared and discussed for further application.

 Speakers: Speakers at the event include representatives from Indonesia, Peru and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Hokkaido University, Global Environment Centre (GEC) Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and Greifswald Mire Centre. Moderated by UN Environment Programme.

Focus of the event: Peatlands cover less than 3 percent of the Earth’s surface but hold the largest terrestrial organic carbon stock in their soils. To avoid peatland drainage and the rapid decrease of their carbon storage and consequent greenhouse gas emissions, it is essential to know where peatlands are located by further develop national peatland maps. Peatland mapping is a solid base to advance with climate-smart policy frameworks, land use planning and monitoring. Latest experiences, technology and guidelines of peatland mapping, monitoring and management techniques will be shared and discussed for further application.

Hosts: GEC, Greifswald Mire Centre, JICA, FAO, Hokkaido University, UN Environment Programme. It is organized in the frame of the Global Peatlands Initiative with the support of IKI funded by German Ministry for Environment and International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

Links: www.greifswaldmoor.de www.gec.org.my www.jica.go.jp/english/index.html

Follow us at this event on Twitter @CarbonConnects

A very successful conference that allowed us to push our project one step further!
Making an impact and synergies were the main focus of this event.

Impact

At our project stand we presented not only the idea and approach of CarbonConnects, we brought some concrete products resulting from wet farming like isolation, a cattail example, food products from lisdodde, etc. On an interactive map we were able to show our visitors the 10 pilot sites. 

Synergies 

A very fruitful meeting was organised with CCONNECTS, CARE PEAT and CANAPE to plan our synergies starting now! Together we will send a strong message to policy makers to stress the importance of peat management 

Check out the final agenda and discover other projects here: https://www.nweurope.eu/news-events/media-contacts/nwe-making-an-impact/

Carbon Connects 4th Partner Meeting On the 27th of November, partners of the project met in Stanhope, England to hold their 4th partner meeting hosted by the North Pennines AONB Partnership. The day started with a visit of the Pennine PeatLIFE site - Valance Lodge where peat restoration techniques have been demonstrated and evaluated as part of another project. Then, the partners visited the Carbon Connects Weardale demo site: a degraded site becoming drier due to historic loss of sphagnum caused by overgrazing, burning and drainage. Indeed, sphagnum is a key component to a fully functioning blanket bog, stabilising the bog surface, increasing surface wetness and re-invigorating peat formation. In the afternoon, project updates were discussed and guest speakers from iCasp, DigiBog Hydro and the Interreg North Sea Region – Topsoil Project were welcomed to bring different perspectives and expertise on peat restoration. AC3A held the final working session by first giving an overview of the pilot sites and engaging partners in finding common points, challenges, strengths and weaknesses across them, and then by exchanging views on the transnational Low-Carbon Business Modelling. The next day started with a visit to the Middlehope Natural Flood Management Site, followed by the discovery of the High Force Waterfalls in Teesdale. In the afternoon, a working session aiming at outlining a European Certificate of Wet-Agriculture took place. Partners gathered thoughts on the pros and cons of accreditation systems, payment systems, additionality and spatial scale. To finalise this successful meeting, partners discussed the Farmer-2-Farmer programme, the communication strategy, potential synergies with other projects, as well as long term goals.

Positive story about #peatland restoration in Scotland creating a vital carbon sink and a thriving habitat for a range of species https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/nov/27/scotlands-peat-bogs-reveal-their-secret-strength-carbon-aoe

" Turf is one of the least efficient fossil fuels as it emits high levels of CO2 per unit of energy used. Alongside that, intact peat lands play a role in flood management and protecting biodiversity, as well as being an excellent carbon sink."

Peat is vital in the fight against climate breakdown, we should not be using peat compost to improve the soil in our gardens, use other organic matter for this!👍 Only 4K more votes needed to have this discussed by the UK government! ➡️Sign now! https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/263362

Follow or view the meeting here: https://webcast.ec.europa.eu/carbon-farming-schemes-in-europe-roundtable

Information on the pilot site

Size: 1 ha
Crop Type: Cattail
Water level fluctuations: -10 and +20 cm

GOAL: Keep water table high and block the drainage ditches to reduce water loss by downward seepage for more stable ground water tables

Check this document for more information.

Information on the pilot site:

Size: 15 ha
Crop Type: Miscanthus
Innovative business model to grow Miscanthus to be used as substrate to grow biological mushrooms

Goal: Develop and test a business model producing the substrate for biological crops.

👉 More information here.

Information on the pilot site:

Size: 3000 ha
Crop Type: Grasses grow naturally, no cultivation
Water level fluctuations: 0,7-4 m, Grazing Cattle

Goal: Analyse what is the ideal level of carbon storage and the realistic one for maintaining human and agricultural practices

👉 More information here.

Information on the pilot site:

Size: 137 ha
Crop Type: Ling heather soft rush
Highly degraded and drained blanket because of extractions during the last 20-30 years for domestic and industrial purposes

Goal: Improving the water quality, enhancing the habitat especially for Pearl Mussel by having a good vegetated peatland located adjacent to a water body, supporting the landowners in quantifying and improving the Carbon Sequestration Potential

👉 More information here.

Information on the pilot site:

Size: 4.5 ha
Crop Type: Sphagnum
Upland blanket bog with degraded vegetation community caused by overgrazing, burning and drainage

Goal: Demonstrating cost effective Sphagnum inoculation on degraded peatland to improve condition, reduce carbon emissions and prevent further degradation and costly restoration works in fut.ure

👉 More information here.

Information on the pilot site:

Size: 90 ha
Crop Type: spontaneously grown sedges, rushes, reed, grass and planting of reed and cattail for capturing nutrients in surface water
Land Use: Former agricultural area to be transformed into wetland, serving both nature goals and water management goals as a flooding area.

Goal: Rewetting the entire area, the creation of a high-quality reed marsh and the implementation of a sustainable management of habitats in cooperation with local farmers, stimulating the use of biomass from the wetland in farming practices

👉 More information here.

Information on the pilot site:

Size: 1000 ha
Crop Type: spontaneously grown reed, sedges, rushes, grass, willow
Land use: Nature Reserve with 50 ha large pond

Goal: Wetland restoration and rewetting. Increase of C-stock. Use of biomass for on-farm composting and compost use on arable land

👉 More information here.