Establishing blended financing for peatland restoration in Ireland

The Journey of Peatland Finance Ireland

Dublin, 2021 - It all started with a fortuitous Covid video call between the two subsequent co-founders of Peatland Finance Ireland; Shane Mc Guinness of University College Dublin (UCD) and Paul Chatterton of the Landscape Finance Lab. Shane at the time was leading a project to quantify the financial needs of biodiversity conservation and restoration in Ireland, while Paul had recently spun out of the World Wildlife Fund and was seeking additional landscapes in which to develop strong multistakeholder platforms for restoration. 

This conversation followed a UCD review that Shane co-authored in 2018 which provided, for the first time, a clear picture of the state of biodiversity financing in Ireland. The review identified that while there were some excellent state-backed projects already restoring peatlands, the total annual spend was roughly €29 million. In comparison, the estimated cost needed for restoration exceeded €1.5 billion.

It became clear that integrated action was required to stimulate peatland restoration in Ireland, and that long-term, sustainable, transparent funding was sorely needed.

Enter Peatland Finance Ireland (PFI) – established as a non-profit organisation in 2022, we are a collaboration and a platform that brings together stakeholders across Ireland from all sectors: academics, government bodies, semi-states, community groups, agriculture, and financing experts, amongst many others. Crucially, community benefit and interests are at the core of PFI’s endeavors.

PFI’s aim is to move beyond sole reliance on state funding and create a financing system that blends public funding for restoration with contributions from other sources, including private organisations and corporates. The key is to ensure legitimacy, trust and objectivity, ensuring that funders can verify the benefits of the restoration they support, and that landowners or project developers can cover the up-front costs of restoration.

The Peatland Standard for Ireland is PFI’s solution for measuring and verifying the benefits arising from peatland restoration – including improvements to water, reductions in carbon emissions, biodiversity gains, and reductions to wildfire risk. V1.0 of the Peatland Standard is live now, and you can find out more about it here.

What’s next for Peatland Finance Ireland?

Following three successful years focused on developing core governance structures, gathering stakeholder feedback, establishing two-way communication methods, and creating the Peatland Standard, PFI now manage and deliver restoration projects across Ireland - projects that are signed up to the Standard and ready to receive restoration funding. One of PFI’s core duties will be to link these projects with funding from organisations keen to be part of a wider movement to restore Ireland’s peatlands. The key goal is to promote, support and ensure the management of a national financing system for peatlands, as outlined here.

Who We Are - PFI Board of Directors

  • Shane Mc Guinness, PFI Co-Founder

    UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN

    LinkedIn

  • Paul Chatterton, PFI Co-Founder

    LANDSCAPE FINANCE LAB

    LinkedIn

  • Tasman Crowe

    UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN

    Read Bio

  • Siobhán McQuaid

    TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN

    LinkedIn

  • Patrick Fitzgerald

    HUTCHINS CLIMATE CAPITAL

    LinkedIn

Who We Are - PFI Implementation Team

Peatland Finance Collective

The Peatland Finance Collective is a Community of Practice of peatland landscapes (and their partners in Government, science and academia) in the UK and Ireland, which supports peer-learning, sector capacity building, and the development of shared models for mobilising investment into peatland restoration.

The Peatland Finance Collective receives financial support from the EU Horizon 2020 WaterLANDS programme, and technical, learning and secretarial support from the Landscape Finance Lab. To find out more about the Peatland Finance Collective or to enquire about membership, please email deesha@landscapelab.org.

UPCOMING EVENTS

UPCOMING EVENTS

There are always exciting events taking place in the peatland community in Ireland. Here we share events that we are organising, participating in, or just find interesting. Are you organising a peatland event that could be of interest to communities, researchers or investors? Get in touch to be featured on the website!

Climate Finance Week Ireland

We’re looking forward to Climate Finance Week Ireland! PFI Co-Founder Shane Mc Guinness will join a panel on Financing Resilience, Enhancing Competitiveness. Three experts will bring scientific, policy, and practical perspectives on how nature-based solutions can strengthen resilience and unlock long-term economic value: Dr. Aoibhinn Ni Shuilleabhain (PhD) (Chair, IAC Nature Restoration Plan), David Fenner (AP International and EU Affairs Directorate, National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS)), Dr Shane Mc Guinness, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, UCD | Founder and Chair of Peatland Finance Ireland.

Learn More

EU Carbon Farming Summit

Dublin

Padua, Italy

17-19 March 2026

Register

24-27 November 2025

The European Carbon Farming Summit is an annual gathering driving Europe’s transition toward credible and scalable carbon farming. Organised by SAE Innova and Climate KIC as part of the Project CREDIBLE consortium, and co-hosted by EIT Food (as LILAS4SOILS coordinator) and Confagricoltura Veneto, with the support of Veneto Agricoltura, the summit brings together farmers, researchers, policymakers and innovators to accelerate regenerative and climate-smart agriculture..

Society of Wetland Scientists (SWS) Europe Meeting 2026

Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic

29 June - 2 July 2026

The Society of Wetland Scientists (SWS) Europe Chapter is already planning next year's annual meeting. The meeting will held at the University of South Bohemia in Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic from 29 June to 2 July 2026. Stay tuned for more information in the coming weeks!