Protecting our Peatlands
Guest post by Andy Clark
Globally, our peatlands are in a dire state. Healthy peatlands are made up of thousands of years-worth of accumulated plant-matter, water-logged so it doesn’t degrade, allowing them to store colossal amounts of carbon. The moss that grows on (and eventually dies to become) peat – sphagnum moss – grows slowly but surely, and over a large area provides a huge carbon sink.
Sphagnum moss
A healthy peatland or bog also has a very high water-table (the water sits within a few centimetres of the ground surface) – the water helps sphagnum moss to grow, the moss holds on to more water, and so on. This saturation of water in a bog is also what allows moss to become peat – it prevents the degradation of dead matter, and preserves it. (Lots of other stuff has been found preserved in peatlands too – from ancient trees to historic artefacts, animal carcasses, and even human bodies!)
These often-vast expanses of wet bogginess are also havens for wildlife of all shapes and sizes. For all of these reasons, peatlands can be considered places of great cultural and ecological significance.
In the UK, peatlands cover 12% of our land area – from the Scottish highlands, through Cumbria and the Peak District, spanning lowland Norfolk and patches of the Midlands, and on to Dartmoor and Exmoor (to note the largest few).
Unfortunately, peat is a tremendously fertile growing medium when it’s dry, which is why peat’s commonly used in horticulture in bags of compost, and why vast areas of peaty lowlands have historically been drained – lowering the water-table to grow vegetables.
Throughout our lowlands, this practice has given us some of our most productive agricultural land. The same approach has been applied to the rolling hills of the uplands, but it’s not proved as successful there, so tends to be used for grazing sheep (though it’s not great grazing pasture either), and is very often managed primarily for grouse-shooting.
Unfortunately, when peatlands are drained, all of the good things they offer us in terms of biodiversity and carbon-storage are drained away too.
When peat is dried, the preserved organic matter is exposed to the air and oxidises – and becomes a source of CO2 and methane. When that happens, the peat physically starts to shrink. What could begin as 20m deep wet peatland, will soon start to shrink towards the bedrock.
Exposed peat
Until 2019, the emissions from degraded peatlands were not taken into account when calculating our national carbon statistics – which, it turns out, was a bit of an oversight.
The UK’s peatlands have been drained so extensively that a 2017 study found the UK’s peatlands to collectively be a source of around 20 MILLION TONNES of CO2 (equivalent) every year.
To put that into context, that same year the whole of the UK managed to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions from all sources (not including peatlands) by about 32 Million Tonnes of CO2(e).
The current state of the UK’s peatlands are undermining over half of our national efforts to reduce GHG emissions from all sources.
Unfortunately, carbon emissions alone have not proved a strong-enough incentive to radically change any behaviours, or re-write policy. Thankfully the business argument for restoring our agricultural peatlands has now also been made – though it wasn’t until Michael Gove’s brief stint as Environment Secretary that it was officially acknowledged that, with the current rates of peatland exploitation, the peat-rich soils in our lowlands that provide most of our vegetables have at most 30 years left until there’s nothing left to farm.
So that’s what it comes down to: we continue as we have been doing, and after 30 more years of pouring carbon into the atmosphere we lose the ability to grow food; or we change what we’re doing, make our peatlands a carbon-sink again, and give ourselves the time to find new ways to feed ourselves.
But what can most people do to support action for our peatlands?
Well most people don’t have a peatland on their doorstep – in fact most people have very little direct interaction with peatlands. There is, however, an established and substantial market for horticultural peat.
So there’s a simple action to take; only buy peat-free compost, and support a total ban on peat-containing compost. That will make a small difference to the global climate, and more-importantly will tell policy-makers that peat is a public priority.
But the next step is much bigger and arguably more important; to completely restore the UK’s degraded peatlands.
This is going to take a complete re-writing of our agricultural policy to directly support farmers and landowners in the restoration of their peatlands. That support needs to come in the form of financing, and in the form of practical knowledge and on-going guidance. And *fortunately* (let’s be optimistic) we have that opportunity because of Brexit.
The new Environmental Land Management Schemes (ELMS) currently being developed by DEFRA do at least acknowledge the importance of supporting peatland restoration for climate, water and biodiversity reasons.
The ideas that are underpinning the new approaches in the ELMS are that land owners should be given “public money to provide public services”; managing land (and water) in ways that provide benefits to air quality, help manage flood [and drought] risk, and sequester carbon to help mitigate climate change.
At present, in these early stages of ELMS, what has been published is looking like it’s off to a good start. The skeleton of providing public money for public services and a nod towards practical support are there, but there’s a LOT that still needs fleshing out.
With this very time-limited opportunity to restore our damaged environments and prevent the worst impacts of climate change, it’s important that nothing is overlooked and the approach is got right.
If you are in a position where you can influence policy then please do make the most of that opportunity and lobby for the restoration of our peatlands. This includes any farmers or landowners; organisations like the National Farmers Union, Country Land and Business Association etc. are there to be joined and have a significant pull on policies. Just as importantly, directly offer your expertise to policy workshops etc. because the people who make policies desperately need to understand what it’s like to be you, to share your needs and concerns, and to learn from the intimate knowledge that you have of your lands.
For the general public, organisations like Possible are a fantastic way to stay informed, to lend your voice to campaigns, and to get actively involved in climate-positive projects.
Shortly before the lockdown began, I was talking with Possible and some peaty-peers about the chance to hold a public peat-restoration event. Unfortunately that idea’s been put on hold for now – but I’m sure it’ll re-surface once we’re all allowed to go outside responsibly again.
For now though, I’ll leave you with my vision of the future of peatlands: The Carbon Farmer, my film released in 2018, but still absolutely relevant.
