The peatland question - should we continue to cultivate and if so, how?

Peatlands are incredible - globally they cover 3% of land area but  hold more than twice the carbon in all the world’s forests. But managing  them is a conundrum and a balancing act between short and long term  food security, biodiversity, climate, and livelihoods: Their carbon-rich  soils make them food-producing power-houses (accounting for 30-40% of  UK-grown potatoes and vegetables) but also significant carbon emitters  when drained and cultivated (1% of UK carbon emissions). Those who farm  peatlands are often acutely aware of this issue, but don’t know what to  do: Rewetting peatlands can lock this carbon back up and improve  biodiversity, but rewet them too much and they start to emit methane,  and of course displace food production elsewhere and potentially impact  livelihoods too. So, what should we do? Prof Heiko Balzter,  from the University of Leicester, will unravel this topic for us: Last  year, as part of his AFN…