10128726Peaky Blindspots - Farmer-led research to accelerate peatland restorationClosedCollaborative R&DInnovate UKPeaky Blindspots is a farmer-led approach to generating evidence for large scale, rapid peatland restoration. It is the idea of a cooperative group of Peak District Farmers who between them manage some 40,000 hectares of upland farms. This farmland contains a significant proportion of England's peatland, storing carbon and preventing its release into the atmosphere. It is also 'home' to rare and endangered species of fungi, invertebrates, birds and mammals, as defined by their red-listed status by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Natural Capital markets are developing fast, but farmers are generally ill-prepared to access them and harness the resources that are available to deliver significant environmental benefits. In order to reach Government targets on emissions, species recovery and habitat recovery, it is mathematically essential that farmland is used to contribute to the total. So, farmers need to understand both what they can do, and how they can finance it. This research puts farmers in the driving seat. It enables them to use their own knowledge and experience but to enlist the scientific expertise of trusted partners to ascertain the most effective methods to achieve environmental outcomes at the most reasonable cost. Peatland restoration work is, in effect, agricultural work. So by using this information and collaborating as a cooperative on a landscape scale, upland farmers will be able to develop, quantify, deliver and monitor their own restoration work to investors in the Natural Capital markets at scale, and rapidly, using their own skills and businesses in a circular local economy. This creates not only commercial security for farming businesses, it also delivers public environmental goods and promotes resilient rural communities where younger generation farmers can see a viable future in the industry.