I am the Graduate Trainee in Green Finance and Peatland Restoration within WaterLANDS UK. My role is to help build capacity and mobilise the use of green finance to support and deliver peatland restoration across the Great North Bog. This involves sourcing and engaging private sector finance, raising the profile of peatland restoration work delivered by the Great North Bog partners and a large amount of cross-organisational and cross-sectoral collaboration.
Why was the post created?
The Great North Bog coalition identified the need to diversify funding streams to bridge the gap between current availability of public funding and the scale of the peatland restoration challenge. This includes developing a green finance or blended approach (using a combination of public and private sector funding to finance restoration).
The partnership needed a dedicated member of staff who could focus on and navigate the complexities of green/ private sector finance and understand the conservation basis underpinning restoration work. My role was structured as a trainee position to account for the relatively new nature of the green finance space, allowing me to develop the green finance skills needed rather than be expected to be an expert from day one.
How does your role fit within the University of Leeds and North Pennines National Landscape team?
My position has been created by the University of Leeds, as part of the WaterLANDS Action Site in the UK. This means I am employed by the University of Leeds, with the role funded through WaterLANDS.
As the purpose of my role is to deliver sustainable financial solutions for peatland restoration across the UK Action Site, this requires close collaboration across all six of the Great North Bog partners. To enable me to do this most effectively my role sits within the North Pennines National Landscape team. This allows me to work closely within the Great North Bog, responding to day-to-day developments and integrating as a key team member within the working partnerships.
How does your role fit within WaterLANDS?
My role enables me to provide a physical link between Yorkshire Integrated Catchment Solutions Programme (iCASP), the WaterLANDS project and the Great North Bog Action Site.
My work primarily falls into three work packages:
- WP3 Aligning Governance: identifying and developing suitable policy and governance frameworks for the successful largescale ecological restoration of inland and coastal wetlands, through a participatory approach.
- WP4 Mobilising Finance: developing and testing mechanisms for sustainable finance for large scale restoration of wetlands and their services.
- WP6 Restoration Management: ensuring the effective development, planning and execution of wide-scale restoration of wetlands across the WaterLANDS network of Action Sites.
Who do you work with?
I work with a large number of collaborators.
On a day-to-day basis I work within the North Pennines National Landscape team where I have the opportunity to learn directly from staff’s experience delivering and financing peatland restoration programmes. I also meet frequently with members of the other five Great North Bog partners (Yorkshire Peat Partnership, Moors for the Future Partnership, Northumberland Peat Partnership, Cumbria Peat Partnership and Lancashire Peat Partnership) through a mixture of virtual calls, regular operational group meetings and in-person events. This enables me to support a wide range of projects and green finance developments for peatlands across the north of England.
I also collaborate with academics and technical staff from the University of Leeds, as well as international WaterLANDS partners and external organisations involved in supporting peatland restoration. This allows me to learn from restoration experts working internationally to deliver best outcomes for peatlands.
A final intrinsic part of my role is working with stakeholders, including landowners and private sector organisations, looking to get involved in peatland restoration work. I enjoy helping to build relationships with new and existing partners and engage a wider audience with the value of peatlands.
What have you been up to so far?
I started this job in mid-November 2024 and during this time, I have:-
- met with each of the Great North Bog partners to introduce my role and identify areas where I can support green finance objectives
- contributed to international WaterLANDS meetings exploring project work and deliverables
- explored the history of the Great North Bog’s private finance engagement and their strategies for future direction.
- took part in and helped deliver cross-sectoral workshops addressing green finance and peatland restoration challenges.
- joined meetings with Great North Bog corporate partners and potential corporate partners, helping to develop partnerships and drive agreements forward.
- helped raise the profile of the Great North Bog by developing and creating content to highlight investible propositions for peatlands.
What did you do before this?
I have a degree in Biological Sciences from University of York, through which I focused primarily on ecology and research in conservation. I have worked and volunteered with the RSPB and Field Studies council where I have carried out practical conservation, visitor engagement and educational fieldwork across a broad range of UK habitats.
More recently I worked with Moors for the Future Partnership as a Casual Research Assistant. This involved carrying out vegetation surveys across peatlands in the Peak District. I loved being out in these landscapes, and I think it was this role that helped solidify peatlands as a career focus of mine.
What do you enjoy about your job?
I really enjoy the trainee element of this post. I think the opportunity to be in a role where learning is intrinsically built into the job description is really exciting, especially when the people you get to learn from are experts in their field.
Another key aspect I enjoy is that every day is different. Even in my first four months I have had the opportunity to work on a wide range of activities, from helping host workshops with sector professionals to developing content to increase engagement for peatlands as investible propositions.
Finally, I really value the fact that this role enables me to make a positive contribution to peatland restoration in northern England. It is very fulfilling to feel that your role is helping bridge a skills gap and provide capacity and skills building for a large scale restoration initiative like the Great North Bog.
What are the challenges?
I think one of the main challenges is that so much of the green finance space is new or in the early stages of development. This means there aren’t currently a lot of answers – but it does mean there is a lot of room for learning and opportunities to drive things forward.
How can we contact you?
kathryn@northpennines.org.uk
