Update on the Valuing Nature Network project on peatlands (May 2012)

1. Assessing and
valuing
peatland
ecosystem services
for sustainable management

2. Why do we need this project?
• Society doesn’t
pay for many of
the benefits we
take for granted
from nature

3. Why do we need this project?
• To pay for nature’s services we need to:
– Quantify stocks & flows of benefits from nature
– Understand how these stocks and flows are
influenced by different ecosystem/other processes
– Understand how the way we manage the land
affects these processes, stocks & flows of benefits
– Understand land manager motives/barriers

4. Why do we need this project?
• Social-ecological systems are complex:
– Multiple services
– Services that
interact &
change over
space & time
– Different & changing
values/priorities...

5. Why peatlands?

6. Why peatlands?
• A complex social-ecological system in which to
develop new insights/methods to value nature
and better manage the environment
• Opportunity to develop concrete policy
contributions from our work
• The insights/methods that emerge must be
applicable to a wide range of
ecological, policy & business settings

7. Aim 1a (VNN challenges 1-3)
• Identify options for valuing changes to stocks
and flows of multiple ecosystem services in
complex socio-
ecological systems
using both
monetary & non-
monetary approaches

8. Aim 1b (VNN challenges 3 and 4)
• Consider how this information might affect
the design of financial mechanisms to lever
investment in the provision of climate
mitigation & adaptation
(including developing
a roadmap for a UK
Peatland Carbon Code)

9. Aim 2 (VNN challenge 4)
• Develop a peatland hub in which researchers
and members of the practitioner and policy
community can effectively communicate and
work together to better
understand the value
of peatlands & manage
them more sustainably

10. Timetable
Dates Activity
(2012)
18-19 Jan First project workshop
Feb-April Report writing
May Reducing the cost of the WFD through Payments for
Water Services (with water@leeds)
May Second project workshop (1 day) to review progress
and address specific report writing issues
June Open workshop at IUCN/BES conference ‘Investing in
Peatlands: Demonstrating Success’
November Final report submitted

11. Planned outputs
Type of output Details
VNN Project Report Synthesis report & concept note for full research programme for phase 2 VNN
Papers in peer- The following is an indicative list:
reviewed Review paper of relationships between biodiversity, environmental processes
international and the delivery of ecosystem services, goods and value in UK peatlands
journals Towards a framework for prioritising peatland restoration and conservation
activities in the UK
Valuation of water services for prioritization of peatland restoration: existing
knowledge and challenges
Paper on peatland greenhouse gas accounting and carbon markets
Review paper on PES in agri-environment schemes to promote cross-boundary
collaboration between land managers for ecosystem service management
Policy briefings Policy brief 1: Peatland GHG accounting and carbon markets – a national and
global perspective
Policy brief 2: Road map for a UK Peatland Carbon Code
Policy Brief 3: Policy options for continuing to provide multiple ecosystem
services from UK peatlands through Payments for Ecosystem Services
Policy Brief 4: Using PES to spread the costs of meeting WFD requirements

12. Planned outputs
Applied Output: • Develop a peatland hub for researchers, policy-makers and practitioners, linking
Development with existing initiatives
toward peatland • Develop a road map for establishing peatland ecosystem service markets with
carbon code carbon as a key service and identify innovative financing mechanisms as well as
steps towards regulatory framework
Water industry To be held in May with water@leeds
workshop
Presentations Presentation and meetings with relevant policy teams in DEFRA and DECC
International academic conference presentations
Other Project findings will feed into ongoing research projects and policy processes e.g.
DEFRA’s PES best practice guidelines, St George’s House Consultation on the Future
of the Uplands, NERC’s Biodiversity, Ecosystem Services & Sustainability
programme...

13. Policy Progress
• Policy Brief 1 published with IUCN: The Kyoto
Protocol and National Accounting for Peatlands
• Policy Brief 2 (roadmap) in draft form, received
positively by key decision-makers in DEFRA
• Proposal made to EMTF
• Drawing together our PES work with work from
RELU/LWEC in RELU Briefing Paper to input to
DEFRA’s PES Action Plan: you can help
• Feeding into NEA2 project on shared values
• Contributing to DEFRA’s PES Best Practice Guide

14. Peatland Gateway
• Agency funding secured for first year
• Interest from SG in future funding if we prove
our worth and work alongside their CoEs
• Co-ordinating a stream of activities in DEFRA’s
Ecosystems Knowledge Network focussing on
applying the Ecosystems Approach in
peatlands, drawing on VNN work

15. Conference Presentations
• Envecon2012
• The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity
(TEEB) conference, Leipzig 19-22 March 2012
• Expert meeting: Peatland and organic soils
climate change mitigation initiative, Rome 2-4
April 2012
• UNFCCC Climate Change conference, Bonn, May
2012
• European Congress of Conservation Biology,
Glasgow, August 2012

16. Outreach
• Media coverage in Guardian linked to
Walshaw Estate story
• Developing schools resources on the value of
peatlands with Sustainable Uplands project

18. Papers in press
• Reed et al. (in press) Anticipating and
managing future trade-offs and
complementarities between ecosystem
services. Ecology & Society (building primarily
on Sustainable Uplands work)

19. Full Rough Draft Peer-Reviewed Papers
• Glenk et al. framework for prioritising peatland
restoration and conservation activities in the UK
• Martin-Ortega et al. Integrating hydrology and
economics for valuation of peatland water
services and restoration
• Reed et al. PES in agri-environment schemes to
manage ES at multiple scales
• Bonn et al. Peatland greenhouse gas accounting
and carbon markets

20. Outline Peer-Reviewed Papers
• Evans et al. paper on relationships between
biodiversity, environmental processes and the
delivery of ecosystem services, goods and
value in UK peatlands
Considering special issue in Environmental
Policy & Governance or Journal of
Environmental Management

21. Links with other projects
• Co-funding from Centre for Expertise in
Climate Change (Scottish Government):
– Supporting additional VNN work by Martin-Ortega
and Glenk
• Collaborating with BRIDGE to build on both
projects in NEA2
• And others through today’s activities!