00:00They are called the Midlands, and they are one of Ireland's fastest growing regions.
00:09Fast as the farmers who need to keep up.
00:12People are looking at different ways of farming, different ways of producing food.
00:18I think the way climbing is changing, farming also needs to change.
00:22We need to learn different ways of farming.
00:30This region, situated in the heart of the country, as its name suggests, has peatlands
00:36at the centre of its economy.
00:39Peatlands make over a fifth of Ireland's landmass, but the way they've been used so far is now
00:46becoming a problem for the environment.
00:48Peat is all carbon, and actually a healthy peatland is 98% water.
00:53So to do anything, you have to drain it, get the moisture down to 80%, 85%.
00:57But of course, when you drain it, you expose that peat to oxygen and you get very high
01:02emissions to the air.
01:04You can have as many as 30 tonnes of CO2 per hectare per year released.
01:08So drying peat is the problem, making it wet fixes all of the problems.
01:14A unique pioneering European project is helping local farmers navigate this change, supporting
01:20the social and economic impact of the transition.
01:23It's called Peatlands for Prosperity, and it's transforming drained peat soils back into
01:27functional wet landscapes capable of agriculture, a practice known as polluticulture.
01:33Peatlands for Prosperity is basically just teaching people that there's numerous ways of producing
01:40products from peatlands, that's the goal there.
01:44Also providing for biodiversity while producing something that you can use in the economy.
01:51From today's session, I've been considering maybe some bull rushes, which would be a crop
01:57that could be used by thatchers, and I have an interest in that.
02:01Yeah, that's one plant.
02:02I will certainly read the literature that we got today and consider other plants as well.
02:07Peatlands for Prosperity is one element of a broader strategy aimed at securing the economic
02:13future of the Midlands.
02:16The 300,000 euro budget was jointly financed by the EU and the Irish government through
02:21the EU Just Transition Fund programme, an instrument under the European Cohesion Policy that has
02:27so far supported over 170 projects across the wider Midlands region.
02:32There's multiple projects that are going in tandem with this and what we're trying to do is
02:37we're trying to plant seeds so that the sustainability of these communities going forward are there
02:43and that they have the future here in the Midlands.
02:48Now the challenge is making a Just Transition possible, turning climate issues into opportunities
02:54for growth and prosperity.
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