​Fenland SOIL Fens Paludiculture Opportunity Exploration
Initially focusing on expanding Fenland SOIL’s opportunity mapping project to four new drainage boards using the methodology developed by Fenland SOIL in our previous Natural England Funded Discovery Grant Project which saw the collation of local expert knowledge to evaluate the opportunity for potential landuse changed and identify areas for further scoping. This methodology will be refined slightly based off the learnings from the existing project and then be reapplied to new areas making up a total of 26,000 ha.
Develop field scale trials of paludiculture crops under a commercial system.
Project aims
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To expand and refine Fenland SOIL’s landscape opportunity mapping technique to 4 new internal drainage boards across the Fens.
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To explore the feasibility of including commercial scale paludiculture on an intensive vegetable farm.
Location
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Southery IDB
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Middle Fen and Mere IDB
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Upwell IDB
Project partners
Partners - Fenland SOIL
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Fenland SOIL is a not for profit members organisation that aims to inform and develop ‘whole farm’ land use policies, aimed at achieving climate change mitigation and biodiversity enhancement in the Fens, and to help establish an agreed set of numbers for GHG emissions for deep, shallow and wasted peat soils.
Fenland SOIL was set up in 2021 as part of the work carried out by the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority’s Independent Commission on Climate as a dedicated team with farmers at its core to tackle climate issues relating to agriculture and peat in the Fens. We hope that by acting as a united front and showing proactivity we will be able to positively influence and help shape policy so that it is fair and realistic for those that will be implementing it. We feel that ‘the best defence for farming is to stop being so defensive’.
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Project Lead - Megan Hudson – General Manager – Fenland SOIL.
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Email: info@fenlandsoil.org
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