The fight against climate change in Cumbria is to benefit from a £6m boost.

A project to fix huge swathes of peatland in some of the most remote parts of the county has been launched this week.

It’s work that environmentalists say will fix damaged areas of peat bog to ensure they provide more homes for wildlife, store carbon to combat climate change and filter clean water.

The Pennine PeatLIFE (CORR) project is being led by the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) Partnership, alongside Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and Forest of Bowland AONB Partnership.

It aims to restore 1,300 hectares of bog – space enough for more than 1,000 cricket matches to be played at once.

The scheme - which will also trial new ways of financing environmental work - is being backed by the European Union’s LIFE Programme, Environment Agency, Yorkshire Water, Northumbrian Water and United Utilities.

North Penninies AONB director Chris Woodley-Stewart said: “There’s a really strong partnership working together to make this project happen, from the three main organisations doing the work on the ground, the landowners on whose peatlands we’ll be working, the universities undertaking the monitoring and organisations like the water companies and Environment Agency that are helping to fund and guide the programme.

“The North Pennines AONB Partnership and Yorkshire Peat Partnership have developed real expertise in peatland restoration over the years and this is great opportunity to scale up the work, for all the benefits peatland restoration brings to society.”

The area of outstanding natural beauty - renowned internationally for its wildlife and ground conditions - covers large parts of rural north and east Cumbria.

Yorkshire Wildlife Trust chief executive Rob Stoneman added: “The unique wet, cool climate of the UK might not suit all, but it provides the perfect conditions for blanket bog formation, with more than 13 per cent of the world’s resource found here.

“We therefore have a vital role to play in the protection of this globally important habitat and Pennine PeatLIFE is a major step forward in achieving this.”

Restoration work will start next month (NOV) and will involve the use of new techniques suited to the harsher climate of northern England.

New ways of recording changes in the peatlands before and after the restoration will also be trialled, using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles.

The experiences in Cumbria and neighbouring counties are likely to influence future projects elsewhere in the UK and across the world.

Pete Wilson, catchment partnership officer for United Utilities said: “Peatland restoration has been at the heart of our catchment management for many years.

“Not only does it lead to improvements in internationally important habitats, but it can have a host of other benefits to society such as improvements in water quality, reductions in CO₂ emissions as well as slowing water flow into streams and rivers.”

Environment Agency director of operations David Dangerfield added that they too were delighted to be backing the scheme to improve water quality, biodiversity and natural flood management.