Landscape restoration planned following £9m sale

About 7,500 acres of peatland is to be restored following the £9m purchase of an area close to Kielder Forest, the buyer has said.

Emblehope Estate in Northumberland has been bought by a group called Restore, which said it wants to re-wet degraded peatland, restore lost botany and increase vegetation diversity.

The group, backed by private investment and banking partners, denied providing an opportunity for investors to greenwash or offset their carbon emissions.

Founder and director Benedict Macdonald said: "We are doing a more direct form of investment. This is a chance for businesses to invest in this project and it doesn't offset anything they are doing elsewhere."

Macdonald said of the project: "It's a great form of carbon capture, but I'm a big believer that life will regenerate.

"If you have water, insects and flowers, everything builds from the bottom up."

Chair of Natural England Tony Juniper described Restore's acquisition of the land as an "exciting development for nature recovery in England".

If successful, the 30-year project will see the landscape become an open water bog, which Macdonald hopes will attract more wildlife to the area.

"Common cranes and black grouse were quite common in this area a couple of hundreds of years ago," he said.

"Now we've also got golden eagles exploring the landscape."

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