Background
Testing of and demonstrating biodiversity responses to peatland restoration will become increasingly important for moving the restoration story beyond carbon and water, and helping the UK meet international obligations for biodiversity conservation. Current monitoring of biodiversity responses in the UK is viewed as patchy, resulting in a poor evidence base, potentially missed opportunities for testing benefits, and hampering efforts to attract private funding for restoration in new financing initiatives. This proposal seeks support for a review of current biodiversity monitoring of peatland restoration projects in the UK, to inform the development of a strategy for future monitoring, linking to national and devolved peatland restoration strategies.
Objectives
- Collate and review the range of biodiversity monitoring taking place across UK peatland restoration projects
- Review the evidence for biodiversity responses to peatland restoration
- Provide a detailed critique of whether current monitoring is adequate to allow robust examination of responses to restoration. Where necessary, identify required improvements in monitoring (target taxa, methodologies, timescales)
- Develop guidance for future monitoring of biodiversity responses to restoration that will yield analysable data.
Outputs
Each team is delivering the following:
- A workshop with relevant stakeholders to scope out topic content plus additional workshops as required
- A written report presenting a consensus view (where possible) amongst the author team and wider stakeholders; where a concensus view is not attainable the report will present the argument clearly and summarise any knowledge gaps. Protocols will be suggested where possible to address these knowledge gaps
- A summary briefing in plain-English of the key findings of the report and recommendations for future work, using case studies to provide examples of key points
- A graphical representation of the topic as a whole, or a key aspect of the topic to be either a) a graphical abstract; b) a summary diagram; or c) an infographic
- Presentation of findings at an Open Inquiry Event, and in addition the option to present at the 2018 IUCN UK Peatland Programme annual conference.
