Outside body

PDNPA Lead Officer – Hannah Turner.

The Authority appoints 2 Member representatives to this Partnership who act as the Chair and Deputy Chair of the Partnership.  One reserve Member is also appointed.

The Moors for the Future Partnership works on the Peak District and South Pennine moors to improve their condition.

The Partnership has three objectives:

·         To raise awareness of why the moors are valuable and to encourage responsible use and care of the landscape

·         To protect and conserve important recreational and natural moorland resources

·         To develop expertise on how to protect and manage the moors sustainably.

High on the moors of the Peak District is a landscape of peat, a rich, dark soil. Peat is formed when plants, including peat-forming Sphagnum mosses, decay slowly in waterlogged conditions. Instead of rotting away, this peat gradually builds up over thousands of years. Healthy blanket bogs are covered in a patchwork of specialist plants which provide benefits to the surrounding area because:

·         they help keep peat on the moors and out of water flowing into reservoirs, resulting in cleaner water (and lower water bills!)

·         they can slow water down when it rains heavily, helping to reduce flooding in the valleys below

·         they take in carbon dioxide from the air and turn it into peat (and prevent loss of carbon through erosion and oxidation)

·         they provide food, shelter and a home for many special animal species like curlew, red grouse, mountain hare, common lizard and short-eared owl.

Moors for the Future Partnership aims to reverse historic damage to the moorland plants, in which air pollution and wildfire killed off huge areas of vegetation. This resulted in expanses of bare peat, which has no vegetation on it, leaving it vulnerable to wildfire and erosion. The worst of this damage occurred in the Industrial Revolution, when smoke from factories in the surrounding cities caused by air pollution.

Further information is available via the following links:

Moors for the Future: Peak District National Park

About Us | Moors for the Future