Grants to support sustainable lowland peat management

Funding is currently available to help farmers and other stakeholders explore more sustainable ways of managing lowland peat – to preserve soils, cut emissions and maintain agricultural viability.

England’s lowland peatlands, which include the Cambridgeshire Fens, Somerset Levels and Moors, and the Lancashire Mosses, are among the country’s most fertile and historically important landscapes.

For generations, these naturally waterlogged areas have been drained to make them suitable for agriculture.

However, this practice has put their long-term viability at risk as draining peat exposes it to air, causing it to break down and release carbon, while the soil itself gradually disappears, leading to subsidence.

Defra says that in some areas there may only be enough peat left for the land to be farmed in the same way for another 20 to 50 years.

Available grants for lowland peat

Up to £4.5 million has recently been made available through the Lowland Peat Water Discovery Grant to help farmers, landowners and other local partners collectively explore the impact of changes to water management.

The grant encourages groups of local stakeholders to work together to produce a practical plan showing how water tables could be raised safely and sustainably.

This will consider land used for conventional farming, wetter farming and paludicuture (a system of agriculture focusing on the profitable production of wetland crops), or peatland restoration.

Projects can receive between £50,000 and £300,000 in funding.

Upon completion, projects should be well placed to apply for further funding in one of the following ways:

• Lowland Peat Water Implementation Grant – This will fund infrastructure and telemetry to raise and manage water tables in lowland peat soils. Round one will run from 2026 to 2030. A second round will run from 2028 to 2030, timed to coincide with the end of the Discovery Grants projects.

• Paludiculture and Wetter Farming Fund – This scheme is running from 2026 to the end of 2029 and will support research projects addressing evidence gaps around growing crops in wetter soils and help to create viable paludiculture markets.

The application deadline for the Lowland Peat Water Discovery Grant is 26 June 2026.

If you would like to talk about developing a group application for a lowland peat project in England contact Gwil Jenkins (South & East), Lauren Clarke (South West) or Joel Paterson (North).