The Winmarleigh carbon farm has been created on an area of lowland peatland, that was drained and converted to agriculture in the 1970’s. The area has been re-wet and a permanent cover crop of sphagnum moss has been planted.

By re-wetting the peat this reduces damaging carbon emissions from the land, along with protecting the remaining soil carbon. Once the sphagnum mosses have achieved full coverage, the site is expected to become a carbon sink.

Part of the EU-funded Care-Peat project, the carbon farm is a pioneering project exploring ways to reduce carbon emissions from peatlands, whilst keeping the land financially viable for farmers and landowners. It is believed that in the future landowners could adopt the carbon farming model and receive payment for the avoided carbon emissions through government financial subsidy schemes, or via private companies paying to compensate for their unavoidable greenhouse gas emissions.