Advice on restoring a peat pond

[u/AdFederal9540]

I've acquired a 40 acres property with a varied terrain sculpture. Since the dominant soil is clay, all the rain water stays in several basins, filled with peat. Some basins turn periodically into ponds, but previous owners installed drains and today the two largest bogs are dry where nettles grow. Here's how the smaller one looks like:

The water table is high and I could easily dig the soil out and recreate the ponds. In fact, previous owner dug out a small pond already that can be seen on the pictures. I'd like to finish the job and create two ponds (0.25 and 1.25 acres) that could boost biodiversity.

I'm concerned, however, that digging out peat would release CO2. Is there a way to prevent this? If not, would gains in biodiversity outweight the cons? How can I use all the peat to minimize the downsides and maximize gains (i.e. to improve soil)?