More and more people are looking to peatlands to help offset their carbon footprint.
This is because peatland habitats are the world leader in terms of stored terrestrial carbon.
| Consider this Fact: Known peatlands only cover about 3% of the world’s land surface, but store at least twice as much carbon as all of Earth’s standing forests. In addition, at least one-third of the world’s organic soil carbon, which plays a vital role in mitigating climate change and stabilizing the carbon cycle, is in peatlands. |
While Ireland has no formal carbon offset initiative there are a number of ways that you can symbolically offset your carbon footprint and help save bogs at the same time.
1. Restoration of damaged sites: Peatlands can act as a source or a sink of carbon depending on their condition. The Irish Peatland Conservation Council restore damaged peatland habitat in our network of nature reserves that are leaking carbon. Through activities such as drain blocking, Sphagnum moss transplantation, rewetting and water table monitoring we can stop the carbon leakage. Once restoration is completed the very least we expect is that the Peatlands retain their stored carbon intact and reach carbon neutrality. However where the water table is the most stable staying in the upper 10cm of the bog surface all year round, the restored bog may actually begin to naturally sequester carbon once again. Scientists estimate that such sites sequester around 0.7 to 2.8 tonnes of Carbon Dioxide equivalent (tCO2e) per hectare per year.
If you would like to symbolically offset your carbon footprint by helping to support the restoration work being undertaken by the IPCC please donate here.
2. Help purchase a peatland: occasionally IPCC get the opportunity to help save a peatland through purchase of a site. In the past we have saved sites that were threatened in various ways such as development for a dump and mechanical turf extraction. IPCC also get involved in site purchase when a site contains a very rare habitat or wildlife, particularly when there is no one else willing to purchase the site. We continuously build an emergency fund specifically for the purchase of peatlands for conservation. Donations to this fund receive a symbolic share certificate in an acre of peatland. When the funds are spent on buying a bog, donors are informed of the location of the site.
If you would like to symbolically offset your carbon footprint by helping IPCC to purchase an endangered or rare peatland please donate here.
Text © Irish Peatland Conservation Council, Bog of Allen Nature Centre, Lullymore, Rathangan, Co. Kildare R51V293. Email: bogs@ipcc.ie; Tel: +353-45-860133.