🔎 What’s going on?
Scotland aims to restore 230,000 hectares of peatlands by 2030 and has announced an extra £11million funding this year with the hope to restore at least 50,000 hectares by end of 2020.
🍂 Right so what are peatlands?
Peatlands are created when plant remains partially decay when submerged in waterlogged lands (think wetlands, marshes, floodplains, swamps, ponds). They turn into peat (a type of soil) over time, storing the plants’ carbon - in fact, peat is the first step in the formation of coal.
👉 Let’s bring it back to the Scots...
Back in Roman times, farmers in Scotland dug ditches to allow water to flow downhill into rivers, draining the land. Without the water, the peat starts to degrade allowing carbon to escape. An estimated 600,000 hectares have so far been degraded in Scotland alone. Now, landowners are being given government grants to refill the ditches with nearby peat or build a wooden dam to redistribute water across the bogs.
❓Pretty neat, but why should I care?
Well, Peatlands cover 3% of our planet’s land and yet hold 30% of global carbon store. In fact, they store twice as much carbon as all the world’s forests. They are the largest natural carbon store our lands have. In the fight against climate change, peatlands restoration are a significant lever. Plus, peatlands also naturally filter surface water making it drinkable - in fact, a quarter of the UK’s drinking water is produced this way!
🌟 Where do we need to be?
According to Project Drawdown, we need to increase globally protected peatlands from 7.9 million acres to 608 million acres by 2050. This would save 1230 Gt of carbon that would have otherwise been released. Coming closer to home, 12% of the UK land is peatlands - fully restoring them will cost an estimated £8-£22bn over 100 years according to the Office of National Statistics (ONS).
👤 What can I do about it?
If you live in England, always ensure you buy peat-free compost such as Lakeland Gold Peat-free compost.
If you live in Ireland and/or Scotland, please avoid buying peat briquettes and nuggets as fuels for your fireplace. Instead, consider investing in air source heat pumps - a much cleaner alternative to burning peat for heating.
If you are a landowner in Scotland, assess the condition of your peatland here. And then apply for a grant here.
If you are a wealthy landowner (or an aspiring one 😜) consider buying endangered blanket bogs and restore them by turning them into nature reserves - here’s one place where you can do that.