‘Peatlands, People and Nature’, was the theme for our 2024 conference held in Aviemore, Scotland, between 17 - 19 September. Three glorious days of sunshine provided the backdrop to our most ambitious conference yet, an event in the words of Director Emma Hinchliffe, resulting in "the largest gathering of peatland experts in the UK to date."
The conference provided the opportunity to celebrate how far we have come in terms of peatland restoration, but also to look at the challenges still ahead, and what we collectively need to do to scale up this work. Our 2024 gathering placed people firmly at the heart of the celebrations and it was a delight to hear from initiatives from all four nations connecting people with nature, and peatlands in particular.
With the conference taking place in Aviemore, we had another reason to celebrate: the awarding of UNESCO World Heritage status to the Flow Country had been announced just a short time before. Considered the most outstanding example of a blanket bog ecosystem in the world, the recognition of the value of this stunning peatland, close to our location, helped infuse the conference with even more celebration.
Some of the highlights of the conference included:
- Over 350 delegates attending in person over the three days, with many more joining online.
- Opportunities to network through poster sessions and entertainment, which included a ceilidh.
- Field visits, including options from a range of peatland habitats, and experience of different management and restoration techniques first-hand in a beautiful landscape.
- A range of participatory workshops covering the following topics:
- Working together at landscape scale on lowland peat
- Translational palaeoecology and the art of collaboration
- Delivering community benefits from peatland projects
- Digital MRVs for Peatland Code and other projects
- Linear developments on peatlands
- Assessing bog health using a simple condition matrix (classroom and field based session)
- Our future is peat (indoor and field based creative session)
- Native trees, peat and dynamic landscapes
- The need for a unified approach to peat depth
- Bringing back nature: biodiversity monitoring for a greener future
- Restoration standards and guidance
- Training and capacity building
- Peatland cinema and poetry, open to the public, and featuring the premiere of 'Sphagnum Portraits', a creative film commissioned by the IUCN UK Peatland Programme.
- Closing panel discussion.
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You can also watch all of the videos from the conference on our YouTube channel.
The UK is a global leader in peatland restoration. This is only made possible by the enthusiasm and dedication of hundreds of individuals and organisations, whether paid staff or volunteers, NGOs, government, academic, business or private land managers. We commend the whole peatland community and particularly the partnerships that drive this work, restoring and protecting peatlands for future generations. A huge thank you to all those involved in delivering the event, particularly our headline sponsor Peatland ACTION.
