Scottish Highlands Partnership Restores 1,000 Hectares of Carbon-Rich Peatland

Peatlands are one of nature's most powerful and underappreciated climate allies. Though they cover only about 3% of the Earth's land surface, they store more than 30% of all soil carbon — more than twice the amount held in all the world's forests combined. When drained and degraded, however, they flip from carbon sinks to carbon sources. That is why a collaboration in the Scottish Highlands, announced by Rewilding Europe on April 20, 2026, is so significant: neighbouring landowners have joined forces to rewet and restore roughly 1,000 hectares of damaged peatland.

The work spans three landholdings in the Affric Highlands — Trees for Life's Dundreggan estate, the privately owned Guisachan, and Corrimony Farm — coordinated by the Rewilding Affric Highlands initiative with technical advice from Caledonian Climate. Restoring a peatland is hands-on, careful work: crews reprofile eroded "peat hags," block the artificial drains that once dried the land out, transplant living sphagnum moss to rebuild the bog surface, and dig pools to encourage breeding dragonflies. As the peat rewets, it stops emitting carbon and begins storing it again.

“Though they cover only about 3% of the Earth's land surface, they store more than 30% of all soil carbon — more than twice the amount held in all the world's forests combined.”

The benefits ripple outward. Healthy peatlands act like giant sponges, holding water in the uplands and releasing it slowly, which reduces downstream flooding and sustains rivers during dry spells. They also support specialist wildlife: the project is expected to benefit black grouse, black-throated divers, white-faced darter and azure hawker dragonflies, northern emerald dragonflies, and carnivorous sundew plants.

"This is about restoring a whole ecosystem at a landscape scale, with a shared commitment to tackling the nature and climate emergencies and benefitting local communities," said Stephanie Kiel, executive director at Rewilding Affric Highlands. The project draws on funding from the Scottish Government's Peatland ACTION fund and partners including the British Dragonfly Society. It is one piece of a much larger national effort, and restored peat takes years to fully recover its function. But by bringing private and conservation landowners together across boundaries, the partnership offers a replicable model for landscape-scale restoration — proof that some of the most effective climate action is simply helping a damaged ecosystem become whole again.