I'm leading the operation and development of the Peatland Code, an innovative fundingmechanism for peatland restoration. The Peatland Code is a government-backed, domestic voluntary carbon market standard that landowners with eligible damaged peat can follow to attract private finance for peatland restoration by selling carbon units. The Peatland Code provides assurances to buyers.

Delivering an analysis of the potential carbon reduction offered by different options for thetransformation of the Scottish Landscape. This analysis draws on the system-level analysis being undertaken by the ‘Landscapes as Carbon Sinks’ team at Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation.The ‘Landscapes as Carbon Sinks’ project is a collaboration between the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation, The Centre for Sustainable Forests and Landscapes, and Climate KIC; and is part of Climate KIC’s Deep Demonstration programme. The initiative also draws on the expertise of several European partners: ETH Zurich, INRAE, ONF International, The Nature Conservancy, Wageningen Research, and WWF Landscape Finance Lab.

Providing research support to the NERC “Mycorrhizal Drivers of SOM formation and decomposition” project.

My role was to collaborate with stakeholders to collate carbon stock and flux data in order to calculate a full carbon balance for natural, afforested and restored peatlands. My research is the first to show that the peatland restoration following forestry are successful; a policy brief can be found on the ClimateXChange website (Hermans et al).

Greenhouse gas budget measurements in forest-to-bog restoration sites in the Flow country, Scotland.The main aim of my PhD was to measure and understand greenhouse gas fluxes from peatlands after restoration from forestry in the north of Scotland. I set up a network of measuring plots and led teams of up to 6 people to gather fluxes every 6 weeks to obtain annual greenhouse gas flux budgets and separate flux sources within afforested peatland soils. Field measurements were complemented by a lab based experiment investigating biological and biochemical influences on greenhouse gas fluxesThe Flow country in the far North of Scotland has the largest expanse of blanket peat bog in Europe. With peat depths of up to over 6 metres in places, this area represents a significant carbon store. Large parts of the Flows were drained for afforestation with non-native conifers during the 1980s, which resulted in considerable damage to the peat and leading to significant carbon loss. To restore the peats, the RSPB started in late 1990 to fell trees and block drains. Over 2000 ha of forestry are already felled and in the next few years a further 200 ha will be felled within a newly acquired plantation.