Pioneering Bunloit Rewilding Project near Loch Ness aims to reverse estate from net carbon source after research shows 'unsettling' results which were presented at COP26
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A pioneering rewilding estate near Loch Ness has discovered it is a net source of greenhouse gas emissions.
Research by the Bunloit Rewilding Project includes evidence that carbon emissions from peatlands more than cancel out sequestration – capturing and storing emissions – by woodlands on the estate.
The project, which gave a presentation to COP26, found the picture "unsettling".
It is now working to reverse the estate from a net carbon source into a net carbon sink through various measures including planting broadleaf trees and peatland restoration.
It hopes to provide a beacon for hope that humankind can ultimately not just survive but prosper in reversing biodiversity collapse.
Bunloit Rewilding is a new company with a purpose of enabling nature recovery and community prosperity through rewilding.
The estate's existing woodlands and grasslands cover some 441 hectares – 86.3 per cent of the estate land area.
An estimated 866 tCO2e per year is being sequestered in these habitats.
But the open peatlands, which cover 70 hectares, or 13.7 per cent of the land area, tell a different story.
Based on the data gathered so far on the ground, the Bunloit team and their academic partners have calculated an estimated loss of 1106 tCO2e per year.
Satellite-based measurements of peat movements in the last five years independently support carbon-dioxide emissions on this kind of this scale.
Ben Hart, who manages carbon and biodiversity accountancy, said of the combined datasets: "We find an unsettling picture of a verdant estate, replete with healthy woodlands, being a net source of greenhouse-gas emissions, with an estimated average net loss of 240 tCO2e / year.
"We have two main routes to reversing this most undesirable state of affairs.
"The first is to fell non-native conifer plantations sitting atop the peat, letting the compressed bogs 'breathe' again, with healthy moss growing and drawing carbon dioxide down into the wetland, meanwhile planting broadleaves elsewhere on the estate to compensate for the carbon stock loss in the plantations.
"The second is peatland restoration, in particular by blocking drainage channels so as to promote moss growth by retaining water in the bogs."
Based on current data, the project estimates the reduction in carbon losses from peatland restoration and extra sequestration from new planting to be a net saving of 92,350 tCO2e, over 100 years.
But it also says the carbon lost from clear-felling activities must be taken into consideration, meaning a net saving of 60,747 tCO2e over 100 years.
During its biodiversity research, the research team conducted a full botanical assessment of the estate, identifying 580 separate plant species – 271 lichen species, 155 vascular plant species, and 154 bryophyte species.
According to Plantlife UK, the estate is of international importance in terms of lichen communities, and of regional importance in terms of unimproved grasslands.
The Bunloit team hopes its first report provides a good start in illustrating how carbon and biodiversity can be quantified at a granular level, using an array of scientific techniques, on a plot of mixed-habitat land measured in the hundreds of hectares.
How the data can begin to be translated into policymaking in support of government objectives in addressing the climate and biodiversity crises will be addressed in ongoing Bunloit Rewilding work.
Scientific monitoring will continue with the aim of regular reports updating the inventories of natural capital and assessing the impacts of interventions the team make.
Updates of the story will be presented to future climate summits.
Dr Jeremy Leggett, founder and acting chief executive of Bunloit Rewilding, said: "We hope the evidence shines through in our report that the process of returning to the natural state we seek will render the landscape quantifiably better at sequestering carbon and building biodiversity than the current estate.
"Our aim is to use that process to help make nature-based solutions more investible than they seem to be today, quicker than would otherwise have been the case.
"We also hope that in so doing we can provide a beacon for hope that humankind can ultimately not just survive but prosper as we arrest climate meltdown and reverse biodiversity collapse."
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