The Valuing Nature Programme’s Peatland Tipping Points project is investigating how changes in climate and how we manage land might lead to abrupt changes, or “tipping points”, in the benefits that peatlands provide to UK society. We will identify early warning signs (such as changes in common insects) and provide evidence about the likely economic and social impacts of reaching tipping points. This information will be used to develop options for policy and practice that can help prevent tipping points being reached and facilitate restoration and sustainable management of peatlands across the UK.
The project will achieve these outcomes using computer models calibrated with field measurements, experimental ecology, and methods from qualitative social sciences and ecological economics.
We are working closely with stakeholders to identify options for policy and practice that can cost-effectively protect the natural environment and rural communities in these areas after the UK leaves the European Union.
The team brings together leading experts from universities and research institutes from across the UK with the British Trust for Ornithology and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) UK Peatland Programme.
Find out more about the research, read project publications or get in touch.
Prof Mark Reed
Centre for Rural Economy
and Institute for Agri-Food Research & Innovation,
School of Agriculture,
Food and Rural Development,
Agriculture Building,
Newcastle University,
Newcastle upon Tyne,
NE1 7RU, UK
