A new £3million fund to help protect our peatlands has been launched by Environment Minister Andrew Muir.
Councils and voluntary organisations can now apply for the Peatland Challenge Fund Competition which will offer a minimum grant of £50,000 for projects that will protect and improve habitats and the quality of our water.
This Peatland Challenge Fund forms part of the Cross-Border Peatlands Restoration Project announced in 2022. Through this project, the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) is partnering with the National Parks and Wildlife Service of Ireland (Wild Atlantic Nature LIFE project) and NatureScot to benefit cross-border collaboration, knowledge-sharing and expertise building in peatland restoration across Northern Ireland, Ireland and Scotland.
Launching the opening of the competition, Minister Muir said: “Our peatlands are of enormous importance to our environment, affecting our water quality, conserving biodiversity and in mitigating climate change by storing carbon, so I am delighted to announce the opening of this £3million competition fund. It provides a great opportunity to support local not-for-profit organisations and councils to help improve the conditions of our peatlands, many of which are sadly in poor condition.
“This funding will support the restoration of our peatlands whilst helping to restore our environment to a condition that is healthy and will meet our biodiversity targets and our Net Zero contribution. So if you are an eligible organisation with a strong passion to help our environment, I would encourage you to apply now to this new competitive funding scheme.”
The Peatland Challenge Fund is supported with funding from DAERA and through the Irish Government’s Shared Island Fund. Grant awards of over £50,000 are on offer with funding available under the competition being up to 100% of eligible project costs.
The key areas for funding under this competition are:
- Nature Recovery: Building ecological and climate resilience; and
- Connecting People with the Environment.
Further information, including, eligibility, guidance notes and details of how you can apply for funding, can be found on the DAERA website.
Applications must be submitted by 12noon on Wednesday 19 June 2024.
Notes to editors:
1. The full eligibility and environmental impact priorities are:-
a) Nature Recovery: Building ecological and climate resilience
Projects may include:
- Developing and/or delivering peatland restoration plans to maintain and increase the area of peatlands in favourable condition. This includes restoration of erosion impacts, reactivation of drained peatlands, forest to bog restoration, control of alien invasives, and projects that address grazing pressure.
- Development of environmental surveying, monitoring and mapping programmes for biodiversity, climate and water impacts of the peatland restoration works. This includes the development of pilots to demonstrate success of existing restoration proposals.
b) Connecting people with Peatlands
Projects may include actions contributing to:
- Provision or improvement of resources and capacity building activities to deliver environmental learning and community engagement projects for peatlands. This includes an arts-based approach to engagement.
- Improving educational opportunities relating to peatlands, including for under-represented groups.
- Volunteering, including the establishment of new local groups or greater public involvement within their organisation.
- Strategic development of citizen science for peatland conservation and improvement where this will produce reliable long term surveillance indices/data.
2. This new Peatland Challenge Competition complements DAERA’s five-year Strategic Strand of the Environment Fund.
3. The Environment Fund is a long-standing key delivery mechanism through which the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) secures delivery of strategic environmental outcomes through the provision of grant aid and partnership working with the voluntary sector and councils.
Download more info on the Environment Fund.
4. The cross-border peatlands cooperation programme was announced in December 2022 supported through funding of £10million through the Irish Government’s Shared Island Fund and with contributions also from the National Parks and Wildlife Service of Ireland, DAERA and NatureScot. The programme is enabling collaboration, knowledge sharing and expertise building in peatland restoration across Northern Ireland, Ireland and Scotland. The first tripartite conference under the programme will take place in Scotland in October 2024 with delegates from Scotland, Northern Ireland, Ireland and beyond participating.
5. Photo caption - DAERA Minister Andrew Muir pictured at the Balmoral Show today with Maureen Harvey Graham from RSPB who is explaining the important role that healthy peatland habitats play in benefiting nature and the environment.
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