Exciting to see another Peatscapes paper out in the world, led by our brilliant Nye Merrill-Glover!

OnlineFirst - "Reduce, remove, avoid? Making a market for peatland carbon credits in the UK" by Aneurin Merrill-Glover, James Palmer, Roosa Rytkönen, and Kärg Kama:

@peatscapes.bsky.social @leverhulme.ac.uk

peatscapes.com

journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Very happy to see our latest Peatscapes article out in Environment and Planning E, led by Nye Merrill-Glover!

Do give it a read if you're interested in peatland governance, carbon credit markets, or both!

journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

Thanks as ever to @leverhulme.ac.uk! 🙏

Mapping Peatscapes is funded by the Birmingham–Leiden Strategic Collaboration Fund!

Please contact k.kama@bham.ac.uk with any queries.

The workshop will discuss the emergence of large-scale peatland rewetting for climate and biodiversity targets, including how Europe-wide upscaling and standardization of restoration is challenged by complex land use histories, diverse resource-making practices, and longstanding social conflicts.

A flyer for the 'Mapping Peatscapes' workshop, taking place at the Lapworth Museum of Geology, University of Birmingham, March 30–31st 2026.

Next week the Peatscapes Team will join up with social scientists from 10 European countries for the two-day interdisciplinary 'Mapping Peatscapes' workshop at @lapworthmuseum.bsky.social, co-organised by @kargkama.bsky.social & @thomasfranssen.bsky.social!

Agenda: peatscapes.com/mappingpeats...

In the coming weeks, we plan to write up some overarching findings from the very rich discussions which took place – stay tuned to this account and peatscapes.com for more!

(And thanks, as ever, to @leverhulme.ac.uk for supporting the Peatscapes project!).

The 'Living Levels, Shared Futures' forum sought to stage discussions around how future landscape management in the Levels should work, how diverse groups should be engaged, and what successful restoration in the region might look like. Many thanks to all who gave up their time to participate!

Photo showing participants at a public forum on peatland restoration and landscape management in the Somerset Levels, staged in a village hall.

A photo taken in the Somerset Levels showing standing water in a field and fencing.

Last week, members of the Peatscapes team staged a public forum on the future of peatland restoration in the Somerset village of Burtle. The event brought together representatives of environmental charities, rewilding groups, local residents, parish councillors, farmers and former peat extractors.

Our talk noted how restoration faces conflicting demands, as it's defined by pre-existing heated debates around forest management, land stewardship, and powerful vested interests. This context makes it impossible to hold any meaningful debate around the goals and priorities of "restoration" as such.

In Estonia, peatland restoration is mostly confined to protected areas to improve mire habitats, which however often host mature forest ecosystems that have grown since drainage. As a result, rewetting efforts are being accused of "drowning forests" and trading one kind of biodiversity for another.

This week, we were excited to present our research to social scientists in #Estonia, led by Roosa Rytkönen at Tallinn University. It was a great opportunity to share knowledge amidst intense expert and public disputes on the large-scale #rewetting of Estonia's forested #peatlands. @leverhulme.ac.uk

Roosa's lecture focused on expert contestations & on how questions of repair/care in restoration are far from straightforward, starting with which ecosystems are considered (most) in need of repair, how repair is measured and how the overall context of intensive land-use affects these debates.

Despite being fairly marginal in EU-level discussions on peatland restoration, forestry-drained peatlands are a key 'peatscape' in both countries and raise questions and trade-offs that differ significantly from those concerning agricultural peat soils.

Dr Roosa Rytkönen delivers her lecture on contestations around repair in the restoration of forestry-drained peatlands at the University of Freiburg, as part of a series on 'Healing, Repair, and Ecological Restoration: Interdisciplinary Dialogues on Planetary Health’ at the Centre of Planetary Health.

Last week, our very own Roosa Rytkönen was guest speaker at the University of Freiburg's lecture series on ‘Healing, Repair and Ecological Restoration: Interdisciplinary Dialogues on Planetary Health’! Roosa spoke to contestations around forestry-drained peatland restoration in Estonia and Finland.

Proud to share our first project output in Estonian! 🇪🇪

Our Roosa Rytkönen presents this poster today at the "Habitat restoration and conservation" conference in Saaremaa, Estonia, organized by key national experts and the State Forest Management Centre, RMK. Excited for feedback! @leverhulme.ac.uk

Excited for today's sessions on 'Carbon Creations & Creative Carbons' at the @rgsibg.bsky.social, Birmingham!

Our very own Roosa Rytkönen will present on: "Seeing the Mire from the Trees: The Calculative Politics of Forestry-Drained Peatlands in Finland" 🌲🌳

4.50pm, Alan Walters Building, Room 111

Peatscapes will be at #INTECOL2025 this coming week in Tartu, Estonia 🇪🇪! Our Roosa Rytkönen opens the socio-economic panels with KEYNOTE "Seeing the bog from the trees: Social science agenda for the study of forestry drained #peatlands". Monday 11:15, please drop by! intecolwetlands2025.ee #geo #STS

Carbon futures in the mire? Knowledge controversies in European peatland restoration and remaking - James Palmer, Kärg Kama, Roosa Rytkönen, Aneurin Merrill-Glover, 2025 In Europe, vast swathes of peatland have historically been drained for agriculture, forestry, or mining, generating significant greenhouse gas emissions. Scient...

🌎 New paper published in Progress in Environmental Geography 🌎

'Carbon futures in the mire? Knowledge controversies in European peatland restoration and remaking' by James Palmer, Kärg Kama, Roosa Rytkönen & Aneurin Merrill-Glover

journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.... @peatscapes.bsky.social

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

Really excited to see our first 'Peatscapes' journal article out today in @progenvgeog.bsky.social!

Carbon futures in the mire? Knowledge controversies in European peatland restoration and remaking

Open Access link: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

#geography #sts #peat #restoration

This week we're joined by Dr Kärg Kama & Dr James Palmer who will be presenting their new project 'Peatscapes in transition: knowledge controversies in European peatland restoration'

🗓️ 06/02
⏰ 4pm
📍@oxfordgeography.bsky.social

All welcome! @jamesrpalmer.bsky.social @kargkama.bsky.social

CfP Carbon Creations RGS-IBG 2025 FINAL Call for papers RGS-IBG 2025, Birmingham, UK, 26–29th August Carbon creations and creative carbons: the politics of carbon in land management and restoration Conveners: Kärg Kama (University of Birmin...

Calling environmental geographers, political ecologists and STS scholars working on carbon farming, afforestation, peat restoration & related topics!

Please consider our 2025 RGS-IBG session:
"Carbon Creations and Creative Carbons: The Politics of Carbon in Land Management and Restoration"

🌿🌳🚜🪵🌍⬇️

Check out this recent Peatscapes blogpost on restoration in the Somerset Levels, written by our Research Associate Nye Merrill-Glover.

Part of the fabulous 'Seeing the Woods' blog, hosted by @carsoncenter.bsky.social

The Peatscapes project logo

Peatscapes is a 3-year project investigating knowledge controversies around European peatland restoration, funded by @leverhulme.bsky.social

Find out more about the project and our brilliant research team - including Roosa Rytkönen and Nye Merrill-Glover - at peatscapes.com