Peatland Rewetting: Stopping Emissions from Drained Bogs

Peatland rewetting is the restoration of drained peatland by raising the water table, typically through ditch blocking, bunding or removal of drainage, so that aerobic decomposition slows and carbon loss is halted or reversed. It sits inside Carbon Credits and connects directly to how projects are documented, financed, and judged.

Drains are blocked and, where needed, embankments are built to hold water at the surface. Water level, vegetation and greenhouse gas fluxes are monitored, since rewetting can increase methane emissions even as carbon dioxide losses fall. Crediting compares the avoided emissions with the drained baseline over the crediting period. Because emissions depend on water level, projects install dip wells and log measurements across the site, and the crediting calculation uses the relationship between water table depth and flux rather than a single default factor.

Drained peatlands emit carbon continuously as exposed peat oxidises, so rewetting avoids a large and otherwise persistent source. It also protects a carbon store that took millennia to accumulate and supports wetland species and water regulation. Rewetting brings adaptation benefits, including reduced fire risk, improved water retention and habitat recovery, which matter in landscapes where drained peat frequently burns. Clarity about Peatland rewetting is what lets buyers, sellers, and regulators compare like with like instead of trading on assumption.

A useful way to think about Peatland rewetting is as a bridge between climate science and finance: the science defines what a genuine outcome looks like, while finance decides whether that outcome gets funded and repeated at scale.

Methane emissions after rewetting can offset part of the carbon dioxide saving, and the net effect depends on water level and vegetation. Failed ditch blocks, peat fires and delayed recovery of the water table are common, and baseline drainage rates are uncertain. Landowner cooperation is a practical obstacle, since rewetting can conflict with agriculture or forestry, and compensation agreements often determine whether restoration lasts.

CarbonFi pairs water-level monitoring with flux estimates and a methane deduction, so rewetting credits reflect measured hydrological recovery rather than the area of land enrolled. Water-level readings are stored per monitoring period, so a falling water table shows up rather than being averaged away. For teams working across CarbonFi, Peatland rewetting is not abstract: it maps onto concrete steps in verification, issuance, trading, or retirement, each of which can be recorded and checked on-chain.