Our peatlands are a lifeline for people and wildlife 

High in England’s uplands, peatlands quietly do extraordinary things. They store carbon, filter drinking water, help slow the flow of rain into rivers, and provide a home for specialist wildlife found in few other places. When they are healthy, these landscapes are one of our strongest natural allies in the fight against climate change and nature loss. 

But the future of this vital work is now uncertain. The Nature for Climate Peatland Grant Scheme, which has supported much of England’s peatland restoration effort, is due to end in April 2027. At present, there is no dedicated successor fund for upland peat restoration. Without one, restoration could slow sharply just when England needs to accelerate action for nature, climate and water resilience. 
 

The looming gap for upland restoration 

Investment in lowland peat is hugely important and must continue. But it does not answer a pressing question for England’s hills, moors and blanket bogs: who will fund upland peat restoration after 2027? 

DEFRA are expecting Countryside Stewardship and Landscape Recovery to fund upland peat restoration projects. These schemes are important parts of the wider funding picture. To provide crucial funding streams for farmers to maintain correct maintenance of peatland restoration sites through management payments. But the budgets are finite and stretched badly, and ELMS is not set up for upfront capital investment. 

This fails to consider the delivery on the ground. Farmers do not have the cash flow available to fund these projects up front. These projects can cost anywhere from £1,000 to £10,000 per hectare. Upland peat restoration sites can cover huge areas (hundreds of hectares), sometimes requiring helicopter drops, specialised equipment and a range of restoration techniques from reprofiling the peat, to grip blocking and planting of sphagnum.  

These capital costs are normally funded on behalf of the farmer through the peat partnerships or other fundings bids, without an upland peat fund these costs now fall on the farmers which they simply cannot afford. Capital costs could be covered through capital grants however they work via a payback system once the works are complete. 

If the landowners don’t have the money upfront which in most cases, they do not then restoration can’t take place. Peat restoration often covers multiple land holdings creating a further complication if some land holdings could afford the restoration and others couldn’t the projects would be incomplete.  

Despite the Peat Partnerships being set up to manage and fund these complex projects they have received no access to funding. Research from the IUCN UK Peatland Programme suggests that the end of the current scheme could be an existential challenge for many peat partnerships. These are the local teams that bring together land managers, contractors, conservation bodies and communities to turn restoration plans into real practical action on the ground. Partnerships estimate that restoration activity could fall by 60–70% without a replacement fund.
 

What this could mean on the ground 

Data gathered from peatland partnerships across England points to substantial reductions in future delivery. Yorkshire Peat Partnership reports a drop to 2,000 hectares of restoration a year, despite having the potential to continue to deliver up to 10,000 hectares of restoration each year if funding continuity is secured.

The South West Peatland Partnership reports that restoration delivery could fall from 362 hectares in 2026/27 to just 10 hectares in 2027/28 without continued funding.  

Once that capacity is lost, it will not be easy to rebuild. Skilled staff move on, machinery is redeployed, relationships with land managers weaken, and years of careful project development can be lost. For landscapes that take thousands of years to form, a short break in funding could have long-lasting consequences.
 

A risk to national targets 

A gap in upland peat restoration would reach far beyond individual projects. 

The Government has committed to bringing 75% of Sites of Special Scientific Interest into favourable condition by 2042. That will be much harder without sustained upland peat restoration, because upland peat habitats account for nearly 40% of these designated sites. If restoration activity falls by an estimated 60–70%, progress towards this target will become significantly more difficult. To achieve climate targets by storing carbon, the Climate Change Committee pathway aims for 79% of upland peat to be in a natural or rewetted condition by 2050.  

The National Audit Office has also highlighted the scale of effort needed to meet England’s peatland restoration ambitions. Delivering the target of restoring 280,000 hectares of peatland by 2050 will require restoration activity to increase by around 10,000 hectares each year. Losing delivery capacity now would push England further from that goal, not closer to it.
 

What needs to happen now 

The Wildlife Trusts, alongside other peatland organisations, academics and eNGOS are calling for a dedicated successor fund for upland peat restoration. This would protect restoration projects, maintain delivery momentum and ensure that agri-environment schemes and private finance can build on, rather than replace, strong public investment. 

England cannot afford to let upland peat restoration stall. These landscapes are too important for wildlife, for climate action, for clean water and for communities downstream. A funding gap now would risk undoing years of progress and losing the people and partnerships needed to restore these places for the future. 

The choice is clear: invest in continuity now, or risk letting progress sink.