School of Law

RESPECT – Rapid Engagement with Stressed Peatland Environments and Communities in Transformation

Peatlands are one of the world’s most important natural habitats. These habitats store large amounts of carbon, contribute to flood risk management and support biodiverse landscapes. But today, around 80% of UK peatlands are damaged. Instead of storing carbon, they are releasing it and adding to climate change. Protecting and restoring peatlands is urgent if we want to achieve the UK’s “net zero” climate goals.

Our project, called RESPECT (Rapid Engagement with Stressed Peatland Environments and Communities in Transformation) is working to understand and fix that. Our aim is to produce data, methods, landholder tools and proposals for governance reforms to change agricultural practices on peatland and contribute to the UK’s net zero target.

What we are doing

We are focusing on two areas, the Forth Catchment in Scotland and the Humber Catchment in England. In these areas, we are:

1. Identifying where sustainable peatland management would make the biggest difference. We are doing this by collating historic and new scientific data to understand how peatlands have changed over time.
2. Talking and listening to landholders and local communities to learn what encourages or discourages them from getting involved in peatland restoration. We are also interested in the perspectives of local communities and how sustainable peatland management may benefit them.
3. Building a practical tool called the Peatland Triage Tool. This will help landholders make informed choices about restoring peatland on their land by providing clear, practical advice based on the latest data.
4. Looking at how current policies help or hinder sustainable peatland management. We’ll provide suggestions that could better support landholders and make it easier to restore peatlands across the country.

Project structure

The RESPECT project is a partnership between four universities: the University of Glasgow, the University of Hull, Newcastle University and the University of Stirling. It is funded as part of UKRI’s Land Use for Net Zero, Nature and People (LUNZ) programme.

The project is organised around four core interdisciplinary work packages:

• WP1: Peatland Through Time and Space 
• WP2: Social Capacities for Peatland Transformations 
• WP3: Peatland Triage Tool 
• WP4: Policy and Practice for Peatland Transformations 

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