ENVIRONMENT experts are set to embark on a major peatland restoration project in a bid to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Inverclyde.

More than £780,000 has been set aside by the council for work on Dowries and Hardridge farms – two land holdings in Clyde Muirshiel Regional Park.

According to a report to a recent meeting of the local authority’s environment and regeneration committee, healthy peatland can ‘lock up’ significant amounts of carbon for a long period of time.

However, around 80 per cent of it in Scotland is degraded through drainage and other detrimental land management – meaning it often emits carbon rather than store it.