The South West Peatland Partnership, a collective of organisations working together to restore water to peatlands has won gold in the 2024 Global Good Awards, receiving international recognition for the important peatlands of Dartmoor and the South West.

The ‘Wild World; Recover, regenerate, rewild’ category that the SWPP won was introduced this year, celebrating positive action environmentally in in a range of areas.

Judges cited the SWPP’s as ‘a great example of practical partnership and collaboration across sectors to address a complex problem’ and highlighted the ‘intentional inclusion of historic, social and economic benefits too’ in peatland restoration.

Morag Angus, SWPP manager, said: “It’s great to have the scale and ambition of peatland restoration across the UK’s South West recognised globally. In the past year alone, we have worked with local contractors to create over 25km of peat bunds, stone barriers and log blocks across Dartmoor, Exmoor and Cornwall.That’s over 10,000 single interventions, all helping to slow down the flow of water that rushes off dried and degrading areas of peat, reducing further erosion channels from growing larger and creating wet boggy environments for bird species like the dunlin, and insect-eating sundews to thrive.

“In one gully, peak storm flow was reduced by 49 per cent, minimising the erosive power of rainfall events, improving water quality due to less sediment runoff and creating a more gradual flow into local reservoirs.'”

The SWPP is now in the practical restoration season out on the peatlands of Dartmoor, Exmoor and Cornwall, working to improve the hydrological function of these globally rare habitats.