Description:
The MoorLIFE 2020 project aims to restore and protect areas of Active Blanket Bog within the South Pennine Moors Special Area of Conservation (SAC) by undertaking concrete conservation activities, environmental monitoring and communication / education events.
This case study specifically focuses on the carbon audit being undertaken as part of the MoorLIFE 2020, and represents just one of the environmental monitoring actions being undertaken as part of the project.
Location:
South Pennine Moors, Special Area of Conservation
Habitat types (UK NEA habitats):
Mountains, moors and heaths
Partners, organisations and stakeholders involved:
National Trust, Pennine Prospects, RSPB, Severn Trent, United Utilities, Yorkshire Water
Associated beneficiaries - RSPB, National Trust, Pennine Prospects
Aims of the project/initiative:
1. Identify annually the amount of greenhouse gas emissions associated with delivering all actions (conservation, monitoring, communication and administrative) associated with the project
2. Measure greenhouse gas emission by site and activity to inform efforts to maximise efficiency when managing resources
Challenges and lessons learned:
To ensure all emissions associated with contractors working on MoorLIFE 2020 were captured . Moors for the Future Partnership included a sentence within their contracts stating that the contractors had to provide the distance they travelled to site, the numbers of trips made and the vehicles used
A challenge was to create a methodology for carbon auditing which suited all partners and actions. To overcome his, DEFRA guidelines were used. Additionally, quarterly update meetings were used during the start-up period to check that all partners understood the process associated with the carbon audit. This approach allowed each partner organisation to capture the carbon audit emissions associated with their organisation.
The carbon benefits for bare peat could be calculated because the amounts of carbon going into and out of a bare peat system is identified, this is known as carbon budgeting, allowing the carbon benefit to be calculated. Whereas the carbon budgeting figures currently do not exist for other habitat types (e.g. Common Cotton Grass (Eriophorum angustifolium)) and works (e.g. Sphagnum planting).
MoorLIFE 2020