A NEWLY-formed social enterprise company has been given funding by Dartmoor National Park to carry out an audit to calculate the carbon emissions generated on Dartmoor.
The £17,000 from the sustainability fund will enable the Dartmoor Circle to devise a plan to reduce the carbon footprint by half with ideas as transforming food waste at hotels and restaurants into energy and building a 'green' power station.
Dartmoor Circle, which is made up of a coalition of local community groups, will look at ideas from across the country and overseas and come up with some new ones of its own like using Dartmoor's natural resources of water and wood for fuel.
The research is being backed by the national park managers who are concerned about the effects of extreme weather events brought about by climate change which they fear will in future threaten the livelihoods of some of its rarest inhabitants and precious landscapes.
DNP spokesman Mike Nendick said: 'The work will be crucial in finding out what the effects of carbon emissions are on Dartmoor and that will then allow us to plan our policies to address that.'
He said migratory birds and the brown fritillary butterfly were among those at risk.
Sources of greenhouse gases on the moor include tourist traffic, homes and businesses and methane from cattle.
The co-operative is looking for other funders to match the £17,000 from DNP.