• July 6, 2026

LIFE Multi Peat team gathering in Ireland

At the end of May 2026, the LIFE Multi Peat team gathered in Ireland for a 2-day partnership meeting. The focus of the meeting was two-fold: to get an overview of project progress from partners; and to plan the remainder of the project. 

Some of the greatest success stories from the project partners include:

- 130 ha of alder swamp forest recently rewetted in Belgium by the work of Natuurpunt

- Restoration of 217 hectares in Ireland in progress; in Galway one of the first restoration works on Atlantic blanket bogs is taking place with plantation forests having been cut down and over 6000 drainage ditches in the process of being closed on one of the sites (this area approximately ~120ha)

- Willow pilots implemented in Belgium and Germany to buffer nutrient leaching into peatlands and to explore use options for the transition zones of peatlands

During the planning of the rest of the project, details of the Power to the Peatlands Conference, the final conference of the LIFE Multi Peat Project, were discussed. The conference, which will take place from 2-4 September in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands, is jointly organised by the Interreg ADMIRE and LIFE Multi Peat projects. Several results of the project, such as the Peatland Policy Portal, posters, video and print materials will be presented alongside the following workshops and sessions:

- From ambition to action: how can CAP and WFD support peatland and peat soil restoration on agricultural land

- Navigating Public Narratives in Peatland Restoration

- Peatland Perspectives unproudly presents: best bad practices

- Peatland Policy Portal

- Greenhouse Gas Monitoring in Peatland Restoration: A Millstone Around the Neck of Upscaling?

- Challenges in determining GHG emissions from peatlands: experiences from individual restoration projects and insights from national research monitoring programmes

As always, the highlight of the two days was the field trip to the restoration site, Galway Wind Farm. Walking across the hills of Derrada, we visited the restoration site, where a plantation forest had recently been cleared, and small drainage ditches were closed by integrating adjacent peat soil. While initial plans had also foreseen the removal of the forest biomass, walking through the uneven and extremely wet peat it became clear why this would have been impossible without causing major damage to these unique soils. Ultimately, natural decay emerged as the preferred course of action over biomass removal. Walking further across the site, we observed a nice gradient from recently-restored to still-intact blanket bogs – a vision of the end goal for our restoration site.