Author: Sonja Schmidt, PhD, Natural England Senior Specialist – Climate Change
England's habitats and soils hold vast amounts of carbon, but some places store far more than others, and some have lost much of what they once held. A new Natural England StoryMap and mapping tool brings together carbon storage, sequestration and loss in one place, so you can see where protecting or restoring land could do the most good for climate and nature. Find out why peat soils matter so much, why the answer isn't always more trees, and how planners, land managers and local authorities can put the evidence to work.
A new Natural England StoryMap and mapping tool shows where protecting and restoring habitats could store the most carbon.
As world leaders meet at COP31, the UN's annual climate conference, one of our most powerful allies in tackling climate change is right beneath our feet.
England's habitats and soils hold huge amounts of carbon. Woodlands, grasslands, wetlands and peatlands all lock it away, but not equally. Some places store far more than others, some are capturing more carbon year after year, and some have lost much of what they once held.
For anyone planning nature recovery, that raises a practical question: with limited time and money, where will action make the biggest difference?
A new way to see the picture
Natural England has launched the Spatial Prioritisation of Land Management for Carbon StoryMap and mapping tool to help answer that question. A StoryMap is an interactive web page that combines maps, text and images to walk you through the evidence.
The tool brings together three things that have not previously been easy to see side by side:
how much carbon is stored in habitats and soils how quickly carbon is being captured and stored over time, known as sequestration where carbon has been lost because habitats have been degraded or land use has changedSeen together, they show where protecting what we already have, or restoring what has been lost, could do the most good for both nature and climate
Not all land is equal
Peat soils are carbon heavyweights. Some of England’s largest below-ground carbon stores are found in peat-rich landscapes, making protection of existing peat carbon a major priority.
Drained lowland peat is a major carbon-loss hotspot. Drainage and intensive cultivation expose carbon-rich peat to oxidation and continuing greenhouse-gas emissions. Areas such as the Fens therefore represent important opportunities for better water and land management.
The answer isn’t always more trees. Woodland creation can deliver substantial carbon gains on suitable mineral soils, but planting on carbon-rich peat can put much larger soil carbon stores at risk. It is about putting the right habitat in the right place.
Carbon storage and sequestration vary greatly between habitats and locations, so targeting matters. Restoring the right places can deliver much greater climate benefits, while also supporting wildlife, healthier soils and more resilient landscapes.
Maps featured in the StoryMap and mapping toolFrom map to action
The tool is designed to support the people making decisions about the land.
For instance, a team drawing up a Local Nature Recovery Strategy can use it to identify the areas where restoration would add the most carbon benefit alongside other priorities. Local authorities and environmental partnerships can use it to align climate action with nature recovery at a landscape scale. Land managers and conservation practitioners can use it to understand how carbon is distributed across the places they work.
It is a guide for landscape-scale planning. For decisions about individual sites, it should be used alongside local evidence and expertise.
Example map identifying areas of potential carbon sequestration and carbon loss in England. Orange areas show where carbon losses are highest and where changes in land management could offer important opportunities. Purple areas show where habitats are already sequestering carbon and where protecting that function is important.Helping England reach net zero
Healthy habitats cannot replace the need to cut emissions, but they have an important role to play. By showing where nature recovery can deliver the greatest carbon benefits, this evidence can help target that supports England's net zero ambitions as well as wildlife recovery.
Explore the tool
The StoryMap introduces the datasets, evidence and methodology behind the tool, and lets you explore the maps yourself.
If you want to go further, you can access the underlying open datasets through the Natural England Open Data Geoportal, and find supporting evidence through the Access to Evidence catalogue.
seen at 16:38, 10 November in Natural England.