CEE Postdoctoral Fellow Dr Cornelia Helmcke presented a seminar titled: ‘Pathways to peatland restoration in Scotland’s crofting communities’ to an audience of nearly 200 Scottish government officials on Wednesday 11 September. This represents further policy engagement which came out of the Peatland Restoration project, a research project co-led by Dr Lydia Cole (St Andrews), and including contributions from Ewan Jenkins (St Andrews) Dr Shona Russell (St Andrews), Dr Milinda Banerjee (St Andrews) and Dr Bobby Macaulay (UHI-Perth).
Cornelia’s presentation sought to demonstrate the current challenges facing peatland restoration on crofting land, and how the Government could best support crofters to restore these key environments. Cornelia highlighted issues of fuel poverty and energy injustice on the Islands, which was supported by research being done in collaboration with the Scottish Research Alliance in Energy, Homes, and Livelihoods. This fuel poverty, exacerbated by the cost of living crisis, has spurred an uptake of mechanical peat cutting activities in recent years. Current support schemes that promote ecosystem restoration do not solve underlying issues, like energy insecurity, and as such risk further undermining rural livelihoods.
“I am very grateful to have been invited.” said Dr Helmcke, “The audience were incredibly engaged and there was not enough time to answer all the questions that came out of the presentation. I’m looking forward to continuing these discussions via e-mails. It was a great experience with hopefully some policy impact.”
