Climate Change

He appeals for people to consider where their “compost is coming from, because in Northern Ireland, quite a lot of it is coming from this area and the impact of that is not good for wildlife biodiversity or for climate change.” He suggests people should consider “alternative sources” to peat compost.

Ecologist Jim McAdam produced the ‘Climate Change Impact and Carbon Storage Study for Lough Neagh’ report for Lough Neagh Partnership in 2023 and says that it is really important to maintain the peatland in a condition that it is holding the carbon in and not losing it to the atmosphere. If the peat “dries up, over grazed, tramped, or burnt, it gives off carbon dioxide”, explains Jim. “We want to try and keep as much carbon in the ground as possible. Farm our land and our soils so that we retain carbon in them as much as possible.”

The temperature of Lough Neagh is increasing more than the temperature of the land, fuelling algal growth along with the nutrients in the Lough.

Storminess is going to increase as the air warms up and has more energy, this will further disturb the water column and sediments in the Lough.

There are about 16.6 million tonnes of carbon in the Lough Neagh area – mostly in the peaty soils- with about 1 million tonnes in the Lough.

Jim says that a nature-based approach will improve conditions and positive steps like planting more trees will help prevent soil erosion with the tree roots helping store carbon.

Michael Meharg finds that over the summer months it’s a little drier on his farm in the Belfast Hills. He says that “wildfires are having an effect on farming” and Lough Neagh Partnership has worked with farmers to produce farm resilience plans for farmers.

Judy Meharg has planted 6.5km of hedgerows and a 2,000 tree woodland on her farm near Lough Neagh. Wildlife can travel along the length of the hedgerows safely and they “suck up all the water and clean up the nutrients and store carbon.”

The views and opinions on the subject of this video content are those of the contributors.

Peatlands and Carbon

Peter Harper of Lough Neagh Partnership says in this short film that Lough Neagh and its shoreline is a very special and important environment with deep deposits of carbon. However illegal peat extraction is having a devastating impact and contributes to climate change.

Need for Improving Conditions

In this short film, Ecologist Jim McAdam explains that it is very important to keep as much carbon in the ground as possible. Planting more trees and hedges will assist with water quality and encourage growth of carbon stocks while reducing the nutrient input into Lough Neagh.