Across Europe, peatlands have nurtured sophisticated and distinctive socio-ecological systems for thousands of years. The process of restoring these unique landscapes—or “peatscapes”—is one that is neither strictly ecological nor exclusively ordered as part of a top-down international response to global warming.

Rewetting of degraded peatlands is increasingly pursued as a solution for net-zero transitions with hopes placed on private capital to rapidly scale-up peat restoration. This paper explores the politics of knowledge inherent in the creation of new peat-based carbon economies in the south of the UK.

This paper problematises the category of carbon removal by exploring carbon accounting in peatland restoration. The ecological diversity of European peatlands and the fragmentary nature of existing data sets, further complicates efforts to ‘scale-up’ peatland restoration as a ‘natural climate solution’. In response to the conference call, the paper examines: 1) how peatland ecosystems intrinsically resist straightforward categorisation as carbon sources or removers; and 2) how the promise of active carbon sequestration is nonetheless mobilised in ecological restoration to create new peat-based carbon economies.

James and Kärg introduced the Peatscapes project at the Peat Café, an online seminar series.

Kärg presented on the Peatscapes project at the 'Ecologies and Infrastructure in Eastern Europe and the Black Sea' conference, jointly-hosted by the UCL Anthropocene and UCL Institute of Advanced Studies in London.

This project undertakes the first social science investigation of knowledge controversies surrounding efforts to “remake” peatlands as a resource for carbon storage at four different peatland restoration sites. It also traces how scientific expertise is integrated into strategies for making restoration economically viable.

James Palmer and his team examine how the restoration of Europe’s diverse ‘peatscapes’ could be scaled up in a manner that successfully reconciles climate benefits with broader social, economic and environmental objectives.