Associate feature: What’s peat got to do with it?

Two quotes from a recent video promoting work to care for Scotland’s peatlands have stuck in my mind. One from a digger contractor describing the work as “…saving the planet” and one from a land manager on the merits of doing the work “…you’d be daft not to do it.”

So, what has peat got to do with saving the planet and why would you be daft not to do it?

Peatlands are layers of dead and decaying vegetation that has been compressed over centuries.  When cold and wet – conditions synonymous with many parts of Scotland - the vegetation can’t decay fully.  Instead, it builds up, at an average rate of about 1mm a year, and has a surface layer of living mosses and other vegetation that holds the water within the peat below.

This is often referred to as ‘functioning’ peatland; it stores carbon and provides valuable habitat for wildlife.  It contains large volumes of water and improves the quality of water before it reaches our watercourses.  The peatland can provide a natural solution to extreme flooding and reduce fire risks from a changing climate, as well as supporting biodiversity and a range of Scotland’s iconic nature.

And somewhere between 20% and 30% of Scotland’s landcover is peat dominated. Much of this is globally important, with 13% of the world’s blanket peatland found in Scotland.  This was recognised in the recent designation of the Flow Country as the world’s first peatland World Heritage Site - a fantastic accolade for Scotland.

Unfortunately, over 75% of our peatlands are not in a functioning state.  Many have been drained, planted with trees or overgrazed, operations often supported by governments in the past.  As a result, our peatlands are now releasing carbon, not providing diverse habitat for wildlife, and contributing to poor water quality.  

The scale of this is illustrated by our estimate that 15% of Scotland’s greenhouse emissions are now coming from our degrading peatlands.  

The urgency to address this is why the Scottish Government set up the Peatland ACTION Partnership. Five organisations - NatureScot, Cairngorms  and Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park Authorities, Forestry and Land Scotland and Scottish Water - charged with restoring 250,000 hectares of Scotland’s degraded peatlands by 2030.  This is quite a challenge when considering that since 1990, including the first decade of Peatland ACTION, only around 90,000 hectares of peatland have been put on the road to recovery. 

Whilst progress to the target was initially slow as we stimulated demand amongst land managers, developed the techniques and workforce to do the work, in the last year we put almost 15,000 hectares of degraded peatland on the road to recovery - a 40% increase over the previous year. It reflects the maturing peatland restoration sector who are carrying out work that will raise the water table; stabilise the land cover and reestablish vegetation cover – a workforce of almost 400 people who, in their words, are “saving the planet”.

Underpinning this increase in pace and scale is the growing appreciation that the required works can be undertaken hand-in-hand with the many other land uses - such as farming, sport, fishing - that support the rural economy.  The associated benefits for their business are also clear to see, for example, fewer sheep lost in drains and gullies, easier access to the land, less flash flooding to wash out tracks, and more consistent water flows for hydro-schemes.  With these benefits and the works being funded by Peatland ACTION, it is easy to see why a land manager would say “you would be daft not to do it.” 

This article is sponsored by Peatland ACTION

www.naturescot/peatlandaction