THE DEPUTY Minister for farming and food has visited Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust’s Glaslyn nature reserve to meet farmers and landowners who are helping pioneer a new upland economy for mid Wales.

It is part of the Wildlife Trusts’ Pumlumon Living Landscape which aims to restore the areas of vast areas of degraded blanket bog in order to soak up rainwater and greenhouse gases and increase the areas wildlife and thus tourism potential.

The area supports the largest watershed in Wales and is the source of the nationally important Wye, Severn and Rheidol rivers.

By revitalising Pumlumon’s important habitats and local communities, the project aims to pioneer a sustainable upland economy for Wales based on the delivery of key ecosystem services.

Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust has been running the Pumlumon Living Landscape partnership since 2005 and currently has 13 active projects (over 1,258ha of the Cambrian Mountains) engaged in sustainable land management.

The Welsh Government has committed to taking action to bring all Welsh peatlands into restoration management by 2020.

Rebecca Evans, the deputy Minister, said: “Projects such as the Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trusts Living Landscape programme can really showcase the wider benefits our landscape can bring for the whole community, such as carbon sequestration, water retention, flood risk alleviation, and restoration of heather habitat."