For peat’s sake stop these fires
THERE are better ways to welcome world leaders to a crucial climate summit than the sight of smoke and flames engulfing our largest carbon store.
But with less than two weeks to go till COP26 in Glasgow, more than 100 moorland fires have been reported across England’s national parks in just four days, a fivefold increase on last year.
Thousands of acres of moorland across the North have been torched as part of the annual burning of heather carried out by the grouse shooting industry.
Despite legislation brought in earlier this year that banned burning on some of the country’s most valuable peatland, figures compiled by the campaign group Wild Moors, show the number of fires have dramatically increased.
Earlier this year I travelled to the North York Moors to witness the practice which conservationists say is the
UK’s equivalent of the burning of the Amazon. I found a frustrated community that was engulfed in smoke.
The peatlands are our largest natural CO2 store. It is estimated 3.2 billion tons are locked in this important area, as well as being an important habitat for rare wildlife.
Experts say the fires cause huge ecological damage, releasing large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and can also lead to an increased risk of flooding.
Burning is permitted between October 1 and April 15 in order to strip back heather, allowing new shoots to grow, which provide food for grouse.
Volunteers recorded 37 burns in October 2020. There were 719 for the full season last year, a rise from 550 in 2019.
Luke Steele, the director of Wild Moors, said: “Whether it’s legal or illegal, it’s outright wrong, because these are our biggest natural carbon stores and we’re literally setting them on fire for grouse shooting. We know from scientific research that when you re-wet the peat bogs, as they should be, not only does it increase the carbon storage potential but it also holds back rainwater and reduces flooding by over half.”
Regulations which came into force in May this year ban burning on land in conservation and special protection areas where peat is more than 40cm in depth.
But this leaves about 40% of the UK’s peatland vulnerable to burning, falling short of the recommendations of the Government’s climate crisis committee, which called for a total ban on burning on peatland in order to help reach the net zero emissions target by 2050.
The so-called government ban is full of loopholes which is still allowing this vital carbon store and natural flood defence to be set on fire for sport.
If Boris Johnson has any hope of Britain being a trailblazer at COP26 and to really tackle the climate crisis, the UK must put an end to this archaic and damaging environmental practice.
Ban loopholes allow carbon store to be set on fire for sport