

Today, the new Peatland Standard for Ireland, developed by Peatland Finance Ireland, opens for public consultation.
The proposed Standard is the first science-backed methodology developed specifically for the Irish peatland context, that enables landowners to attract finance for peatland restoration by offering verified ecosystem-benefit certificates. The Standard, learning from the IUCN Peatland Code (UK), Valuta voor Veen (Netherlands) and Moorfutures (Germany), is unique in offering a means of quantifying broad improvements to Irish peatland sites across key indicators for emissions reductions, water storage and quality, biodiversity, ecosystem functions, flood risk reduction, wildfire prevention and community benefit.
The Landscape Finance Lab helped establish Peatland Finance Ireland (a collaboration between Irish public and semi-state bodies, academia, NGOs and civil society) in 2022 and has supported the development of the Peatland Standard over the last 15 months. The Lab is also advising on pilot investment projects under PFI, offering the first opportunities for investors of various types to support peatland restoration.
We’re very proud to have played a part in this game-changing, landscape-scale initiative. This will be transformational for meeting Ireland’s climate commitments. Ireland’s famous bogs are largely degraded from centuries of drainage, peat cutting, overgrazing and land conversion. They currently emit huge amounts of greenhouse gases - by some estimates up to 5% of the country’s total emissions. The new Peatland Standard will help rehabilitate up to 700,000 hectares of degraded peatlands in Ireland and avoid up to 2 million tonnes of emissions per year, whilst helping farmers and landowners gain additional income.
PC
Paul Chatterton
Founder and Lead, Landscape Finance Lab
The publication of the first draft of the Peatland Standard for Ireland is a really important milestone for the project and potentially provides a blueprint for other peatland-rich countries both in Europe and globally to develop their own national schemes. We’re seeing a growing movement in large-scale public-private partnerships for peatland restoration across the UK and the European Union - very much inspired by the work in Ireland. This is good news, because peatlands have been ignored for far too long.
RH
Rolf Hogan
Wetlands Programme Manager, Landscape Finance Lab
To give feedback on the Peatland Standard for Ireland, respond on the Peatland Finance Ireland page
Consultation
Peatlands are one of the Landscape Finance Lab’s four priority ‘Critical Systems’ for addressing global climate, nature and sustainable development challenges. In addition to supporting Peatland Finance Ireland, the Lab helped to incubate the Flow Country Green Finance Initiative to assist with carbon financing for the restoration of the Flow Country, the world’s first peatland UNESCO World Heritage Site. As leaders of the EU Horizon 2020 WaterLANDS ‘Mobilising Finance’ work package, the Lab is assisting demonstrator sites in Ireland and England to develop various models for peatland finance (Wild Atlantic Nature in Ireland, and the Great North Bog in England). The Lab also initiated, with support from WaterLANDS, a Community of Practice to support peatland teams in the UK and Ireland developing their financing strategies - the Peatland Finance Collective. The group helps peatland teams to build capacity, share knowledge and co-create resources for best practice.
Earlier this year, the Lab also co-authored and published Investing in Peatlands, the first publication of its kind to make the case for peatlands as an emerging asset class and provide case study examples of the projects across Europe that are helping to establish the peatland finance industry and infrastructure.
To find out more about about the Lab’s peatland portfolio and work in this area, or to collaborate on a peatland programme, get in touch with Rolf Hogan rolf@landscapelab.org