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Good practice Imported

Dryhope — The UK's First Verified Peatland Code Restoration Project (Scottish Borders)

United Kingdom · Selkirk · See the United Kingdom profile

Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 40% 47/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Blanket-bog restoration at Dryhope in the Scottish Borders became the UK's first project verified under the Peatland Code, blending public Peatland ACTION grants with private carbon finance from Forest Carbon and NEX Group — a milestone for blended nature finance.

77 ha
Peat restored (rewetted plus actively restored)
156,749 tCO2e
Cumulative emissions reduction associated with the site

Details

Maturity
Pilot
Promoter
Tweed Forum
Period
2017–2025
Region (NUTS)
UKM9
Keywords
peatland restoration, carbon markets, blended finance

Context

Scotland's peatlands store vast carbon stocks, but centuries of drainage for agriculture and forestry left much of the upland blanket bog eroding and emitting rather than storing carbon.

Objectives

At Dryhope, on the Philiphaugh Estate near Selkirk, the Tweed Forum led restoration of degraded bog with funding blended from public grants and private carbon finance, registering the UK's first-ever Peatland Code project in 2017.

Activities

The project rewetted 75.5 hectares and actively restored 1.5 hectares of eroding peat within a 60.1-hectare area of upland blanket bog (77 ha total), blocking drains and re-establishing sphagnum moss cover, funded by Peatland ACTION/Scottish Rural Development Programme grants alongside private finance from Forest Carbon Ltd and its investor NEX Group.

Results

In July 2025, independent certifier Organic Farmers & Growers (OF&G) completed Dryhope's Year 5 verification audit — the first project ever verified under the UK Peatland Code. NEX Group credits its stake in the site with 77 hectares of peat restoration and a cumulative 156,749 tCO2e of associated emissions reduction.

Conclusions

Scottish law firm Harper Macleod called the verification a legal milestone for blended public-private peatland finance in the UK, though the 156,749 tCO2e figure comes from the private investor rather than OF&G's own published report, and no site-specific biodiversity or hydrology monitoring data has been made public.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k) — Funded by a blend of public Peatland ACTION/Scottish Rural Development Programme grants and private carbon finance; specific cost figures are not given.
Time to results
Medium (1–3 years) — Registered as a Peatland Code project in 2017; independently verified (Year 5 audit) in July 2025.
Staffing & skills
Tweed Forum (restoration delivery lead), Forest Carbon Ltd (private carbon finance), NEX Group (investor), Organic Farmers & Growers (OF&G, independent verifier)

Conditions for success

  • Blending public Peatland ACTION/Scottish Rural Development Programme grants with private carbon finance
  • An established, independently auditable standard (UK Peatland Code) to verify outcomes
  • A multi-year monitoring period before formal verification

Common failure modes

  • No site-specific biodiversity or hydrology monitoring data has been made public alongside the carbon verification
  • The reported emissions-reduction figure (156,749 tCO2e) comes from the private investor rather than the independent verifier's own published report

Where it fits

Governance type
NGO-led, blended public grant/private carbon-market finance
Scale
single site (77 ha)
Income level
high-income

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes Own resources / municipal budget

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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