What is the Fens East Peat Partnership?

The Fens East Peat Partnership (FEPP) is working on plans to rewet and restore peatland sites in low-lying areas of Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and keep carbon locked in, benefitting the environment, people and wildlife.

Fens East Peatlands – an urgent problem

99% of the Fens East Peatlands was once the waterlogged peatlands but has been damaged by drainage for agriculture, urbanisation and by peat extraction. The peat has become dry and exposed to the elements, and instead of storing and taking up carbon, it is emitted into the atmosphere as CO2. Lowland peat areas are a major source of greenhouse gas emissions. The damage causes the loss of specialised native species, rich vegetation cover and peat forming ecosystems and the remaining fragmented peatlands are vulnerable.

Urgent measures are needed to address this situation. The vast stores of carbon in the healthy peatlands need long-term management. Carefully managed and monitored peatland restoration work will eventually lead to the capture of more carbon and more places for wildlife to thrive.

What does the Fens East Peat Partnership do?

The Fens East Peat Partnership has been awarded a Nature for Climate Peatland Discovery Grant enabling us to carry out detailed surveys on the extent of degradation, peat depth and archaeology on 20 sites across Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. With this information and working with landowners and farmers, they will create detailed plans to restore the damaged peat.

Peat restoration involves raising the water levels and management of the water across a site without impacting neighbouring fields and other types of land use. When the peat is rewetted, the emissions are reduced and in time with the right peat forming vegetation growing, the waterlogged soil causes peat to form capturing and storing carbon again.