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Project title

Advances in scientific knowledge concerning biodiversity loss, climate breakdown and hydrology have increasingly altered how people relate to wetlands. Policymakers have responded and notable examples are being preserved.

Primary Funding Agency

Taighde �ireann-Research Ireland

Co-Funding Organisation(s)

National Parks and Wildlife Service

Lead Organisation

Trinity College Dublin (TCD)

Lead Applicant

Not listed

Project Abstract

Advances in scientific knowledge concerning biodiversity loss, climate breakdown and hydrology have increasingly altered how people relate to wetlands. Policymakers have responded and notable examples are being preserved. Twelve Bogs: History, Politics, Ecology is a multidisciplinary project that identifies and analyses the socioeconomic and environmental outcomes arising from the Irish state�s managed transition of a dozen peatlands. Contemporary Irish peat research focuses on water table management and concomitant greenhouse gas fluxes. Much less emphasis is placed on political and socioeconomic aspects of habitat conservation and landscape transformation. Twelve Bogs will address this gap by producing a study covering a dozen geographically diverse bogs which are, or have been, subjected to land use change. Drawing on government records, peer-reviewed scholarly research, and collection and analysis of oral histories, Twelve Bogs will make valuable empirical and theoretical contributions to contemporary debates concerning environmental justice. Furthermore, its conclusions may shape future policies on landscape management to make them more acceptable for rural communities. Twelve Bogs will be based in Trinity College Dublin (TCD)�s Centre for Environmental Humanities. The academic mentor is Dr. Katja Bruisch, an environmental historian specialising in peatlands. The co-funding partner is the National Parks and Wildlife Service, at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. The enterprise mentor there is Dr. Shane Regan, a senior scientist with a PhD in bogland hydrology from Trinity�s Department of Geography. The research will be published as a peer-reviewed scholarly monograph and its findings presented at the annual Conference of Irish Geographers in 2026.

Grant Approved

�112,318.00

Research Hub

Climate Change

Research Theme

3. Climate Solutions, Transition Management and Opportunities

Start Date

09/01/2024

Initial Projected Completion Date

31/08/2026