About the project
WaterLANDS is a Horizon 2020 project that aims to restore wetlands across Europe and upscale their protection across wider areas. Wetlands provide us with ecosystem services as they retain and purify water, remove pollutants and excess nutrients, store atmospheric carbon, moderate flooding and coastal storms, support an immense variety of wildlife, and offer recreational, well-being and economic benefits to surrounding communities. When wetlands are mismanaged, these essential services for landscapes and society are lost. Scaling up the restoration of wetlands can work towards re-establishing former wetland landscapes and realising new opportunities for local communities. The project is helping to restore six wetland “Action Sites” across Europe and is learning from the experience of 15 “Knowledge Sites”.
Figure 1: Blanket bog habitat at WaterLANDS' LIFE IP Wild Atlantic Nature Action Site
Description of success
LIFE IP Wild Atlantic Nature is WaterLANDS’ Irish Action Site, located at the Cuilcagh-Anierin Uplands Special Area of Conservation (SAC) in the northwest of Ireland. It is a blanket bog – a type of peatland – and is protected under the EU Habitats and Birds Directives.
In October 2024, the Action Site published a manual, “Blanket bog restoration – Toolkit”, to guide farmers who want to undertake restoration actions on their land. However, it offers wide-ranging utility and can also be used by other stakeholders involved in restoration across Ireland and Europe.
Figure 2: Excerpt from WaterLANDS' "Blanket bog restoration - Toolkit" guidance that gives an overview of blank bog habitats characteristics and location
The toolkit is the first of its kind ever published in Ireland and forms part of the broader training programme developed by the Action Site. Restoration actions at the Irish Action Site are being driven through a results-based agri-environment payment scheme (RBPS) whereby farmers receive funding in exchange for improving habitat quality and biodiversity, using a scorecard system.
The user-friendly manual, which aims to guide farmers and other stakeholders in restoration actions, is provided during the training course and is available to download from the LIFE IP Wild Atlantic Nature website. It explains the main causes of degradation on peatlands in Ireland and provides the solutions for each cause, covering topics such as invasive species removal, drain management and erosion control. Lack of understanding peatlands and their value has been flagged by local communities, therefore, it is critical to share knowledge on the causes of and solutions to peatland degradation.
The Action Site Coordinator, Guaduneth Chico, highlights that ‘this publication is a solution-based toolkit for farmers and peatland practitioners where we have tried to explain all problems on Irish peatlands using graphical elements to simplify the key restoration techniques to address each problem. We are building the legacy of WaterLANDS in Ireland by creating the tool that the farmers can keep after the project’.
Highlights
WaterLANDS Irish Action Site published a restoration toolkit for farmers.
Restoration actions are being driven through a results-based agri-environment payment scheme (RBPS).
The restoration toolkit is a user-friendly manual aiming to guide farmers to undertake restoration of blanket bogs on their land.
It’s the first manual of its kind ever published in Ireland and uses graphical elements to communicate key problems and restoration solutions in an accessible way.
Farmers receive the toolkit at a training event, and can keep it afterwards, thus contributing to the project’s legacy.
The toolkit is also used by other stakeholders such as biodiversity officers across Ireland and peatland restoration practitioners.
Outputs
The toolkit is available to download on the WaterLANDS website. It provides an introduction to blanket bogs and their place in Ireland, as well as the RBPS that is currently operating as an incentive for farmers to action restoration techniques. The guide then delves into the threats and pressures that blanket bogs are facing, followed by actionable solutions that can be enacted under the RBPS and beyond.
Figure 3: Example of a restoration action included in the toolkit
Impact
The WaterLANDS blanket bog toolkit is the current standard for blanket bog restoration in Ireland. This toolkit is primarily designed for local farmers to guide restoration actions and to undertake training on blanket bog restoration, building their capacity to restore their land. It has been further distributed to multiple key stakeholders who are implementing restoration, such as all national biodiversity officers and governmental departments.
As a future legacy, the project expects that local communities will use the toolkit, promoting independent restoration actions without payment.
Lessons
User-friendly guidance increases the acceptance from the landowner to implement restoration.
To restore blanket bogs at the scale required by current legislation, it is essential to increase knowledge about habitat and restoration techniques in local communities and amongst key stakeholders
Providing guidance sets standards and improves the consistency of techniques used across different restoration projects.
Other information
While developing and using the guidance, several challenges were identified and overcome:
Governance: Developing this guidance requires interdepartmental collaboration that could be challenging and needs to be appropriately considered.
Lack of knowledge and understanding: There was a clear gap in knowledge in relation to the habitat, causes of degradation and how to implement solutions. By using the toolkit, landowners can better understand their land and how to improve habitat quality.
Standardisation of restoration techniques: There are different ways to implement restoration techniques. This toolkit has attempted to summarise a range of techniques and standardise their application
Technical documentation barrier: The WaterLANDS team converted complex technical information into a user-friendly toolkit for the general public.
