HOW TO DO YOUR BIT FOR THE PLANET
PEATLAND must be better protected or Britain risks international embarrassment, wildlife campaigners say.
These areas hold three times as much carbon as woodlands, but with much damaged, drained, extracted or burned they release 23 million tons of CO2 a year.
This is five per cent of annual greenhouse gas emissions for the UK, the Wildlife Trusts said.
Peatlands are also a precious wildlife habitat, reduce flooding and cleaning water supplies, the nationwide coalition of wildlife groups said.
The trusts accused ministers of failing to be ambitious enough in ending damage and restoring what is already harmed.
A peat strategy for England has been delayed since 2018.
Targets for bringing back 35,000 hectares by 2025 and £50million funding for it are not enough, the trusts said.
A partial ban on peat burning will only stop it in a small number of peatlands, they warned.
Charities are stepping in, including Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, which has restored a third of the blanket bog in the area, and has plans for more restoration, moss planting and ditch blocking.
Craig Bennett, chief executive of The Wildlife Trusts, said that with only a quarter of the UK’s three million hectares of peatland in a natural state, it was a “matter of extreme urgency” that the Government leads the way in nursing fens and bogs back to health.
The warning comes in the run-up to a crucial United Nations climate summit in Glasgow in November, known as COP26.
Mr Bennett said: “The Government has failed to set an ambitious restoration target for peatlands even though they are one of the most valuable habitats in the UK.
“Just as bad is the fact that they do not have the appetite to stop the ongoing damage.”