The Peatland Restoration Roadmap sets out a pathway towards the ambition set out in the Environment Improvement Plan to bring 280,000 hectares of peatland under restoration by 2050. Natural England was commissioned by Defra to deliver the roadmap project, but the roadmap itself has been developed collaboratively with the peatland restoration community to incorporate their expertise, views and delivery plans.
The project has developed a definition of the area of peatland under restoration using a natural function led approach. This definition is supported by describing restoration outcomes and the stages of progress peatlands can be expected to go through as restoration activities are carried out. The changes in specific aspects of natural function along a restoration response trajectory were also developed at a high-level.
The definitions and response trajectories underpin a restoration delivery pipeline which provides a snapshot of the peatland restoration actions planned or completed by partners between 2021 and 2050. The data for this pipeline was collected through two online surveys, as well as including restoration delivery data from the Nature for Climate Peatland Grant Scheme.
Finally the report presents findings from extensive participatory stakeholder engagement carried out by Dialogue Matters which identified challenges and actions needed to realise England’s restoration ambitions. These findings are presented alongside thematic analysis of the delivery pipeline data. The full stakeholder research report, including a collaborative vision of what peatlands could look like in 2050 is presented as supporting information.