The loss of peat soils and associated CO2 emissions in arable farmland in the Cambridgeshire Fens is of great concern, namely due to the loss of benefits they provide, from keeping carbon locked up in the ground, protecting freshwater as well as water quality and supply. The Wildlife Trust BCN, along with partners, is restoring these critical lowland peatlands for the benefit of wildlife and local people. This project is all about developing an investment case and a financially sustainable model for the restoration of an area of arable farmland that can be replicated and scaled for other areas of fen and lowland peatlands in the UK. It will secure buyer commitments to purchase carbon credits and seek to be one of the first to gain accreditation through the IUCN’s Peatland Code for Fens or equivalent verification scheme, once launched. It will also share learnings with other practitioners and institutions across the UK.

The project team will be working closely with Finance Earth, who brings a deep understanding of the key success factors and challenges in preparing investable projects across a range of ecosystems and revenue models. As well as offering critical learning for unlocking and scaling major new markets, such as nature friendly farming, biodiversity net gain and funding structures to aggregate investment opportunities, as well as helping to provide essential learning and piloting of how to unlock investment, grow pipelines and then unlock a pathway to institutional investment across the eNGO, public and private sectors.

The project aims to secure sustainable investment in fen peatland restoration via unlocking new carbon income streams alongside existing grants, and paludiculture income as policy/trials are finalised, for conservation and demonstrate the benefits of the model to others. To date there are no credible lowland peat carbon schemes to offer to potential investors, which is why WTBCN and Finance Earth undertook a Great Fen peat financial assessment and initial carbon buyer engagement to assess the market. This project will build on this and support the new IUCN UK Peatland Code by being one of the first projects for fens and develop key learnings for subsequent lowland peat restoration. The project will draw on pioneering wet farming that lock in carbon and support farming livelihoods, with significant opportunities for expansion. This project will share learnings to inform others of the value of this investment model to help address climate change and prevent further losses of carbon from peatland soils and contribute to a better understanding of value of peatland carbon benefits for investors. This project will build on existing initiatives run by WTBCN, such as helping to realise the Great Fen vision to restore 3,700 ha of fens over the next 50 years+.