Thursday 2nd October: plenaries and topic deep dives (may be recorded for the Peatland Programme YouTube channel)
Join us for a range of plenaries and topic deep dives with parallel sessions to choose from.
Purchase your ticket through TicketTailor.
8am – 9am Day 3 delegate registration (Foyer)
8.30am Refreshments (Clocktower Suite)
9.15am – 10.15am Opening plenary (Grand Ballroom)
Generation restoration: peatlands and the future workforce
The future of our peatlands depends on the next generation of scientists, policymakers, practitioners, and land managers. Fresh perspectives, creativity, and energy are essential to accelerating restoration efforts and driving meaningful change. This plenary session will spotlight emerging talent in the peatland community, offering a platform for youth representatives to share their visions, experiences, and aspirations. The panel will explore the diverse career paths available to new entrants in the sector and discuss the key barriers and enablers to achieving the scale and pace of action that peatlands urgently require.
10.30am – 12.30pm Morning topic deep dives (various locations)
12.30pm Lunch (Clocktower Suite)
1.30pm – 3.30pm Afternoon topic deep dives (various locations)
3.30pm Refreshments (Clocktower Suite)
4pm – 5pm Closing plenary (Grand Ballroom)
Peatland Progress: one year on from the UK Peatland Strategy report
As we draw the conference to a close, this plenary session will bring together representatives from the four UK nations to share rapid-fire insights on national progress for peatlands. Building on the UK Peatland Strategy Progress Report published a year ago, each speaker will deliver a lightning talk highlighting key developments, with a particular focus on new mechanisms and approaches to meet capacity and scale restoration efforts. The panel will also reflect on the key themes, challenges, and opportunities emerging from the past three days, offering a forward-looking perspective on what’s needed next to deliver impact at pace and scale across the UK’s peatland landscapes.
5pm – 5.30pm Closing reflections and Peatland Award (Grand Ballroom)
5.30pm – 7pm Conference close and pack down
Topic deep dives
‘Getting into the bog’ is a full day workshop involving an outdoor activity.
Delegates to choose ONE full day session
OR
one AM AND one PM session.
Further topic deep dives will be added to the programme throughout July and August and bookings will open in September. If you have purchased a full ticket or Day 3 ticket, you will be sent instructions on how to book your choice of session(s).
Getting into the Bog: creative skills to support your practice
Please note: this workshop covers both the AM and PM workshop slots and includes an outdoor activity. The session starts at 9.15am.
Creative expression is a uniquely powerful form of expression and engagement, and there are numerous practitioners and projects working with peat. However, there’s limited evidence that ecologists, academics, conservation officers, project managers and fund raisers working with peat are drawing on creative techniques to support and develop their work.
In this day-long workshop, delegates will familiarise themselves with creative practice around peat, and will consider how creative writing skills might inform their work in public engagement, evaluations, essays, marketing copy, report writing, etc. The objectives of the workshop are:
- to express the potential for creative practice around peat
- to provide models of existing practice
- to visit a site as a potential focus for creative practice
- to write creatively in response to the site visit
- to consider how creative skills might be applied within one’s own work
- to create a short downloadable resource available to all delegates.
Learning from Our Mistakes: a practitioner’s guide to resilient peatland restoration
Peatland restoration is rarely a straight path, and mistakes can be as instructive as successes. This interactive, practitioner-focused workshop invites participants to explore the challenges, setbacks, and unexpected outcomes encountered in peatland restoration projects across the UK.
The workshop will explore case studies where things didn’t go to plan—examining what went wrong, why it happened, and how these hurdles were overcome. This will be followed by open group discussions, where we will share our experiences and uncover the hidden value of failure as a driver of innovation and resilience in restoration practice.
Whether you’re a seasoned practitioner or new to the field, this session offers an opportunity to reflect, learn, and contribute to the production of a short document that summarises the main themes discussed in this session.
Sustaining Land, Empowering People: community-centred peatland restoration
Community-based natural resource management is based on the pillars of economic development, environmental conservation and community empowerment. This workshop will showcase examples of community-centred peatland restoration in which communities are driving positive change in their local environment through bottom-up, democratic approaches to sustainable land management. We will explore the following questions:
- What are the pros and cons of community-centred restoration projects?
- Do we have many projects of this nature in Ireland/UK?
- What examples are there of organisations facilitating this approach and how do we disseminate their work more widely?
- What can we learn from global examples?
- Is there appetite for this type of project?
- What are the barriers and enablers?
- What type of support (financial or technical) is required?
Why understanding eco-hydrology is important
This Environment Agency-led topic deep dive will explore the critical role of eco-hydrology in peatland restoration. Through a series of presentations, the session will highlight how understanding the underlying hydrology - from base flow and sediment runoff to water quality - is key to successful restoration planning and implementation. Drawing on case studies from across the UK, the session will connect scientific insights with practical outcomes, emphasizing the link between hydrology and restoration targets, including implications for SSSI condition and development pressures.
The session will bring together a range of voices to provide multidisciplinary perspectives. Attendees will gain greater confidence in applying eco-hydrological guidelines and better appreciate how understanding the water environment is fundamental to achieving healthy, functioning peatlands. The session aims to foster shared learning across the UK and reinforce eco-hydrology as a foundation for informed restoration and land management decisions.
Exploring recent learning for water management in Lowland Agricultural Peat
Led by the Environment Agency, this topic deep dive will explore recent learning on water management in lowland agricultural peatlands across England and Ireland. With a focus on responding to the climate and biodiversity crises, the session will highlight how integrated hydrological management underpins more sustainable land uses, including cropping, grazing, rewetting, paludiculture, and nature restoration. Presentations will share findings from research and pilot projects, such as those supported by the Environment Agency’s Lowland Agricultural Peat (LAP) schemes, and initiatives in Ireland that align with similar goals.
The session will profile strategic approaches to managing water tables, assess risks and benefits, and explore how to create more space for nature within productive landscapes. Discussions will encourage knowledge exchange between nations, with a view to identifying collaborative opportunities and shaping a future vision for lowland peat that balances environmental integrity with land use needs. Attendees will leave with a deeper understanding of the evidence base and greater confidence in making informed decisions on LAP land use and water management.
Mosaic habitats
Following up on the themes of the field trip to Garron Plateau on Day 2 of the conference, this knowledge sharing session will showcase talks that will ‘deep-dive’ the issue of small boundary habitats and their importance to the peatland mosaic. We will then have a panel/audience discussion where we will ask the panel to address some specific questions before opening out the discussion to an audience Q&A. The session will consider the threats to these systems and investigate how we might include these habitats in both restoration and land use planning. This workshop will be of interest to those looking to deepen their knowledge of peatland mosaics and habitats and the interconnectedness of the landscape.
