Bord na Móna employees have graduated from Mountbellew Agricultural College, completing the Teagasc Green Cert programme.

The graduates, who work on Bord na Móna’s Peat Climate Action Scheme (PCAS), gained additional training which focused on sustainable agriculture and the environment.

Bord na Móna has recently announced the cessation of peat production on all of its bogs. Peat had been extracted from these bogs under Integrated Pollution Control (IPC) licences issued and administered by the Environmental Protection Agency.

As part of Condition 10 of this licence, decommissioning and rehabilitation must be carried out when industrial peat production ceases.

The PCAS was developed to optimise ecosystem service benefits of peatland rehabilitation and restoration, particularly carbon storage and reducing carbon emissions.

The strategy will improve water quality, reduce carbon emissions and enhance the local environment of over 30,000ha of peatland in Ireland, reducing carbon emissions and improving water quality while enhancing the local environment.

For more information on the scheme visit Bord na Mona’s website www.bnmpcas.ie