CEE Postdoctoral Researcher Dr Cornelia Helmcke’s recent online seminar on peatland restoration in Scotland’s crofting communities was attended by nearly 200 Scottish government officials.
Hosted by the Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services Division (RESAS) of the Scottish Government, Cornelia’s talk, titled ‘Pathways to peatland restoration in Scotland’s crofting communities’, sought to demonstrate the current challenges facing peatland restoration on crofting land, and how the Government could best support crofters to restore peatlands in the future.
From the collective research of Cornelia, Dr Lydia Cole, Ewan Jenkins, Dr Milinda Banerjee, Dr Shona Russell and Dr Bobby Macaulay, the seminar explored peatland ecosystems, restoration finance and the impact on crofting communities, plus fuel poverty and energy injustice on the Islands. The seminar also served to highlight that the key to any restoration effort is to resolve fuel poverty, improve local resilience and support on-the-ground knowledge exchange/sharing and capacity building. Particularly as current support schemes that promote ecosystem restoration do not solve underlying issues, like energy insecurity, and risk further undermining rural livelihoods.
Discover more here.
Read about Cornelia’s summer hosting ‘town halls’ across the Scottish Islands to explore the current constraints to the UK energy grid as experienced by islanders here.
