Conference 2024
Two day conference in the Peak District Town of Buxton
Partners from around the UK including Defra, Natural England and the Environment Agency
Important discussions on how to fund nature restoration into the future
Moors for the Future Partnership alongside partner Severn Trent gathered together key stakeholders to look at the future for green financing and landscape recovery in Buxton in September 2024.
An invited audience of policymakers, land managers and commercial organisations came together for a conference about the future of green financing. The two-day event looked at how business can deliver their own objectives while helping to protect and restore the precious natural landscape of the UK peatland moors. Specially invited guests joined together in Buxton to listen to speakers including Tony Juniper (Chair of Natural England), Siôn McGeever (Deputy Director for Access, Landscapes, Peatlands and Soil, at DEFRA), Liv Garfield (CEO of Severn Trent) and Rachel Hallos (Vice President of NFU).
The conference was an opportunity for farmers, funders and government organisations to get together and to listen to each other’s thoughts and ideas, paving the way forward in looking for future funding for our precious landscapes.
The restoration of the UK’s peatland has been recognised as a critical action to help mitigate climate change. But since Moors for the Future Partnership formed 21 years ago with the purpose of restoring the vast and once degraded landscapes of the Peak District and South Pennines, the financial landscape for funding such vital works has evolved and adapted.
Over the last 5 years the partnership has significantly adapted its financial strategy by seeking new and innovative funding sources including grants, donations, private financing and unlocking natural capital financing such as the IUCN peatland code. At the same time there has been an interest from commercial organisations in the potential of the restored moors due to mandatory government initiated net zero targets.
One of Moors for the Future Partnership’s current projects in delivery, at Combs Moss moor brought together private investment to enhance the moors above the town of Buxton. Moors for the Future Partnership facilitated the stacking of ecosystem service benefits so all parties were able to fulfil their individual organisational goals and KPIs by enhancing the moor, improving biodiversity, water management and locking in carbon.
This has allowed Moors for the Future Partnership to push forward with its ambitious plans to return our uplands back to the blanket bog conditions of the UK’s pre-industrial era as quickly as possible, safeguarding its precious peat store and wildlife habitat for future generations.
