Dr Naomi Conway: Development Director, National Parks Partnerships
When we think about restoring nature to help the planet, we tend to think about saving the Amazon rainforests or planting millions of trees in far off locations. But through my work for all of the UK’s 15 National Parks I’ve grown aware of just how much vital restoration of nature could be happening closer to home.
I’ve spent this year putting together the National Parks’ ‘Net Zero With Nature’ portfolio – a series of nature restoration projects across our landscapes that, if funded, would deliver huge benefits around biodiversity, water quality and carbon – all on our doorstep. I’m not an environmental scientist so I was amazed when I learnt that degraded (damaged) peatland emits greenhouse gases but when repaired, moves to absorbing and storing carbon away in layers of peat soil.
Yes, this restoration work takes many years, but the outcomes – new pollination corridors; healthy peatlands; new areas of woodland and hedges – deliver so much. The outcomes are a powerful combination of enhanced biodiversity, carbon reduction and very often improved water quality and flood risk reduction.
I’ll be talking more about how we can use the UK’s National Park landscapes to fight climate change in this webinar that National Parks UK/Peak District National Park is hosting with the N8 Research Partnership: ‘Nature-based interventions for a green recovery’ .
The webinar event takes place on 4th November – if you’d like to hear more click here to register for a place, tickets are free.