This document discusses the need for a project to assess and value peatland ecosystem services for sustainable management. It notes that peatlands are a complex social-ecological system that provide multiple interacting ecosystem services which are difficult to quantify and value. The project aims to 1) identify options for valuing changes in ecosystem services and 2) develop a peatland hub to improve communication between researchers and practitioners to better manage peatlands. The project seeks to provide insights on valuing nature and tools like a peatland carbon code to incentivize investment in climate regulation.

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. • How do you get land
managers to prioritise
societal benefits?

6. Why do we need this project?
• Interest in Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES):
– DEFRA’s Natural Environment White Paper &
Scottish Government’s Land Use Strategy
– Currently developing PES best practice guidance
for DEFRA (let me know if you want to help)

7. Why peatlands?

8. 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

9. Challenges for Valuing Nature
(1) How can the complexity of socio-ecological systems be
incorporated into valuations of biodiversity, ecosystem
services and natural resource use?
(2) How can stock sustainability be incorporated within
valuations of biodiversity, ecosystem services and natural
resource use?
(3) How can issues of scale be incorporated within valuations
of biodiversity, ecosystem services and natural resource
use?
(4) How do we integrate information on values obtained from
the natural sciences, economics and other social sciences
into governance & so improve decision making and how
can such improved decisions be implemented effectively?

10. Aim 1a (VNN challenges 1-3; WPs 1 & 2)
• Identify options for valuing changes to stocks
and flows of multiple ecosystem services in
complex socio-
ecological systems
using both
monetary & non-
monetary approaches

11. Aim 1b (VNN challenges 3 and 4; WPs 3 & 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)

12. Aim 2 (VNN challenge 4; WP4)
• 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

13. 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

14. Planned outputs
Type of output Details
VNN Project Report Synthesis report and 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 Review paper on peatland greenhouse gas accounting and carbon markets
Review paper on economic and non-monetary mechanisms that may promote
cross-boundary collaboration between land managers for ecosystem service
management
Viewpoints piece for Land Use Policy on regulatory frameworks for Payments for
Ecosystem Services in peatlands
Policy briefings Policy brief 1: Policy options for continuing to provide multiple ecosystem
services from UK peatlands through Payments for Ecosystem Services
Policy brief 2: Peatland GHG accounting and carbon markets – a national and
global perspective

15. Planned outputs
Applied Output: • Link with existing initiatives (IPCC, VCS, DECC, Defra etc), learn from forestry and
Development peatland demonstration sites internationally
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 – see flyer
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...