Carbon Connects in the North Pennines

Carbon Connects is a €4.5 million project funded by Interreg (North West Europe) which aims to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions and enhance carbon sequestration of damaged peatlands in North Western Europe. Carbon Connects is made up of 16 project partners from government, business, research and landowners groups spread across the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Germany, Ireland and the United Kingdom.

The North Pennines AONB Partnership, on behalf of Durham County Council, is a partner in the Carbon Connects project.

Carbon Connects in the North Pennines aims to deliver the following objectives:

1. Restoration of 10 hectares of blanket bog currently with ‘the wrong vegetation’ and in a downward ecological trajectory. These degraded sites are becoming drier due to historic loss of sphagnum consequently risking further sphagnum loss, accelerating the cycle of deterioration and potentially leading to the elimination of all sphagnum cover.
2. Facilitate the development of Countryside Stewardship Agreements with landowners in the North Pennines AONB to ensure they include the restoration plans and capital funds for peatland restoration across the AONB.
3. Peatland restoration activity over Northern England is constrained by the limited supply and high costs of plug plants required for the re-vegetation of bare peat. It is proposed to augment the current limited supply chain through the establishment of new specialist upland plant nursery capacity, representing an opportunity for sustainable farm diversification and local employment.

Four years into the project in spring 2021, Carbon Connects was granted an extension and will now run until December 2023. This phase of the project focuses on providing new financial incentives to facilitate peatland restoration, exploring opportunities for private companies to invest in peatland restoration to meet corporate social responsibility and carbon reduction targets, and addressing barriers to investment. The North Pennines AONB Partnership have successfully secured investment for restoration from several private companies through this approach since the start of the project. For further information on CConnects:

http://www.nweurope.eu/projects/project-search/cconnects-carbon-connects/