Abbeyleix Bog
Knowledge Site
Habitat Type
Location
Ireland
The Abbeyleix Bog Project (ABP) is a community-led peatland management and conservation project. Abbeyleix Bog is situated on the southern periphery of Abbeyleix town in Co. Laois, Ireland and encompasses an area of almost 500 acres of diverse habitats including degraded (but recovering) raised bog, lagg, cutaway, wet carr woodland and meadows. Over the last twelve years the project has developed multi-level and multi-disciplinary collaborative stakeholder models and governance structures to manage, conserve and restore a 200 hectare site. ABP has produced conservation management and restoration plans and commissioned various ecological and baseline surveys to refine such plans. The site has increased its active raised bog area by over 12% since restoration work that took place in 2009, with the blocking of 64 km of drains. The site was also part of a 3-year eco-hydrological climate change study undertaken under the management of Dr Shane Regan.