Repairing nature’s carbon store

Peatlands are unique wetlands made up of rich organic soil and mossy vegetation, and are among the most valuable ecosystems for nature and carbon on Earth. They have a critical role to play in addressing the nature and climate crises. In the UK, peatland covers around 12% of our land area and stores over 3 billion tonnes of carbon. Peatlands improve our water quality, natural flood management, support an array of species and provide wild places for people to enjoy.

Interactive map below.

Lack of action on peatland risks UK credibility in tackling climate change. All four UK governments must step up to show leadership on protection, restoration and management of peatlands and act urgently to introduce a range of ambitious policies. As such, they need to: 

• Take urgent steps to restore and protect the best peatland sites

• Set country targets for restoration and rewetting of peat to halt greenhouse gas emissions in line with achieving net zero targets

• Invest in peatland restoration as part of the Green Recovery to create jobs in the delivery of practical peatland action

• End burning of vegetation on peatland as a legislative requirement  

• Continue to prevent tree planting on deep peat and restore afforested peatlands  

• Prevent tree planting on organo-mineral soils such as shallow peat, unless nature and carbon benefits can be demonstrated

• Ban extraction and retail sales of peat, including in gardening and horticulture  

• Recommend and incentivise economic uses compatible with the sustainable management of this wetland soil type 

In England, the RSPB supports Defra’s aim that our peatlands should be in a healthy wet condition, supporting nature and sustainable economic activity. But where Defra has provided details, for example in the upcoming England Peat Strategy, it fails to match this ambition. It’s essential that we restore all our degraded and poor condition peatland habitats across England, developing sustainable uses on intensively farmed lowland peat soils, and legislate against burning, commercial extraction, and use in gardening and horticulture. Restoration will need to reach far beyond the initial target for 35,000 hectares by 2030 – the date which the 25 Year Environment Plan requires all soils to be sustainably managed. The Nature For Climate Fund needs to provide adequate capital funding to extend beyond this area restoration target, and ongoing funding needs to be in place beyond 2026 for good management for nature and carbon.  

Peatland covers approximately 12% of the land area of Northern Ireland - over 165,000 hectares of land. Healthy, functioning peatlands are vital for nature, climate and water. However, only 14% of peatlands in Northern Ireland are classified as intact due to a range of pressures such as drainage, overgrazing, afforestation, burning and extraction in lowland areas. Even within designated sites, most of Northern Ireland’s peatlands are in unfavourable condition.

To ensure our peatlands play their part in addressing the climate and nature crises, Northern Ireland needs a well-funded Peatland Strategy which sets ambitious targets for large-scale restoration.

Peatlands are a major component of the landscape of Scotland, covering more than 20% of the land area. This means that Scotland has the majority of the peat in the UK and is particularly well-placed to lead the way in peatland restoration.

Unfortunately, there is a great deal to do. The National Peatland Plan estimates that 70% of the blanket bog and 90% of the raised bog in Scotland has been damaged, and data from the Office of National Statistics suggests that 75% of peatland in Scotland is degraded in some way. This means there is well over 1 million hectares of degraded peatland in Scotland.

The good news is that the Scottish Government recognises the importance of peatlands. It knows that it needs to get Scotland’s peatlands into a healthy condition in order to protect wildlife and stop them being net sources of greenhouse gases. As such, it has been funding NatureScot to run the Peatland Action Fund, which, since 2012, has delivered practical restoration work on over 25,000 hectares of peatland across the country. The importance that the Scottish Government puts on peatlands can also be seen in the announcement that it would invest £250 million over the next 10 years in peatland restoration.

This is good start, but it is only a start. The new investment will help the Scottish Government achieve its own objective of restoring 250,000 hectares of peatland by 2030. However we know there are over a million hectares of degraded peatland in Scotland and there is still a very long way to go. 

Peatlands can be found across Wales from the upland blanket bogs of the Berwyn and Migneint in the north, to the lowland raised bogs of Cors Caron and Cors Fochno in Mid Wales, to the small scattered peatlands of Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire in the south west.

However, through inappropriate drainage, grazing and conversion to both grassland and forestry, Welsh peatlands have become a source of carbon, rather than part of the climate change solution. Flooding is an issue in many parts of Wales as water that should be slowed and stored in peatlands moves quickly downstream leading to flooding. Nature also continues to decline, with populations of iconic species such as curlew becoming desperately isolated and fragmented due to habitat loss and other pressures.

Whilst some peatland restoration has been carried out the lack of a clear strategy and inadequate funding means progress on peatland restoration has been slow and piecemeal. Current targets lack ambition, with target restoration of only slightly more than a third of Welsh peatlands. If we are to ensure peatlands help rather than hinder climate goals, we must be more ambitious.