Research Translation Fellowships - working alongside end-user/stakeholder organisations

Peatlands cover 21% of Wales, >90,000 ha (~4.3%) of which is deep peat and represent a huge carbon store estimated at 196 million tonnes of carbon. In good condition, and with appropriate management, peatlands have the potential to continue to protect their carbon store and lock up carbon as new peat forms, and so are important to address climate change and mitigate its direct and indirect impacts (e.g. wildfire) as well as its consequences for society (e.g. flooding). However, >75% of Welsh peatlands are damaged, and instead of keeping carbon locked in the ground, they actually contribute 510,000 Tonnes of CO2e every year, therefore fuelling climate change. Damaged peatlands also reduce all their benefits, with huge cost to society. Steady progress has been made in the restoration of peatlands across the UK over the last 25 years; however, the climate emergency, and land use policies for Net Zero greenhouse gas emissions in UK by 2050 mean we need to do a lot more to conserve and restore our peatlands, a lot more quickly.

The Welsh Government (WG) and Natural Resources Wales (NRW) are currently working to update and develop land use policy, strategies, action plans and practice to operationalise and integrate the progressive recent legislation in Wales to benefit the environment and future generations of Wales. They are also developing a new agricultural payments scheme, the Welsh Sustainable Farming Scheme, that addresses new priority land use outcomes. In Wales then there is considerable opportunity to contribute the latest research evidence and understanding, tools and resources to inform and evaluate these initiatives.

For land owners and managers these changes have brought uncertainty, even confusion and tension, on how best to manage our peatlands and how changes in payments and priorities will affect their businesses, farm landscapes and culture. For example, Wales needs to protect peatlands, but also needs to meet ambitious national tree planting targets in both extent and time, and these two targets may be mutually exclusive; and it is not yet clear how best we should manage vegetation (fuel-loadings) on peatlands to mitigate wildfire risk and impact. It is therefore important that initiatives to reform land management guidance, outcomes and schemes are co-produced with the land owners and managers who ultimately enable and deliver action on the ground. To achieve this a shared understanding of how peatlands function and of the benefits they provide, based on up-to-date science, is required. This will empower and motivate land owners and managers (e.g. especially private farmers) to better engage with the development of new land management initiatives, that ultimately, they are more likely to accept and adopt.

In this two-year research translation fellowship, I will work with 15 peatland-relevant research projects to operationalise their latest research evidence, tools and resources to better inform the development, sustainability and adoption of WG and NRW land-use initiatives and their outcomes. I will focus on the priority topics: tipping points, ecosystem resilience, biodiversity conservation, wildfire, flood risk reduction, remote sensing and mapping, and sustainable management. I will deliver resources (briefings, infographics and animations) and events (webinars, informal meetings, site visits and workshops) for the benefit of WG, NRW, and protected areas; conservation NGOs; and private landowners and managers. In my current role at Swansea University, as Research Hub Coordinator for the WG funded 'Welsh Peatlands Sustainable Management Scheme', I already work with many of these organisations / individuals, initiatives - and researchers. As such I am confident that this fellowship would significantly inform landscape management decisions for Welsh peatlands.