Projects
Britain
Restoring areas of peat moorland
The National Soil Resources Institute estimates that up to 13 million tonnes of carbon are being released from soil across Britain every year. Although peatlands cover only 3% of the world's land area they are the largest terrestrial store of biomass carbon. More carbon is stored in the peat moorlands of Britain than in the forests of Britain and France combined.
Scientists estimate that all of the peatlands in England and Wales would absorb around 41,000 tonnes of carbon a year if kept in a pristine condition, but could emit up to 381,000 tonnes of carbon annually if damaged by practices such as excessive burning, drainage and overgrazing. Under these conditions, peat dries out and releases carbon dioxide and methane, which has 23 times more Global Warming Potential than carbon dioxide.
Forest Moor will pay for peat moorlands to be managed in the optimum way for absorbing carbon and avoiding any release of greenhouse gases. To secure the permanence of the stored carbon, we will only invest in land areas owned by nature conservation charities, which guarantees continuity of management. The most effective way to secure good management of moorland for absorbing and storing carbon is to effect the purchase of the land. We will make carbon offset money available to charities based on the estimated potential for the land to increase its stored carbon.
We have no projects of this type running at present.
Measuring and estimating the carbon flux in soil is a complex area. We will use an average value for the optimum level of carbon that can be stored in peat soil, and compare this with the actual measured value at the start of the project to give the total estimated carbon to be absorbed. We will also use an average value for the minimum level of carbon in peat under unfavourable management. Again we can compare this with the actual value at the start of the project to give a total estimate of avoided emission of carbon.
(Not yet validated under CCB standard.)